Deal Town’s focus on challenging at a new level in the league has meant early exits from both FA competitions hasn’t left them distraught.

Cup enthusiasm is ingrained at Deal following their 2000 FA Vase win but manager Steve King’s now got his team playing at a higher level in the league and that alone is a huge challenge this term.

Deal lost in the preliminary round of the FA Cup to Haywards Heath and were narrowly beaten at home by Ashford United in the first qualifying round of the FA Trophy on Saturday.

King said: “Let me be clear, it was never our intention to go out of the cup, but the cup competitions aren’t a focus for us this season.

“Obviously, financially the FA Cup and FA Trophy can be helpful, so we are disappointed from that point of view as we could have picked up a bit more money. But we haven’t got the biggest playing squad and we know this year is going to be very demanding, with 42 league games.

“We’ve looked at teams like Hythe, who had their FA Trophy run (last season), and that probably cost them getting into the play-offs.

“I think it is a slight silver lining and we’re not absolutely distraught, but anybody that watched us play on Saturday would know we were going all out to win the game. At the end of the season, we might look back and it can sometimes be a blessing in disguise.

“We want to win every game and on Saturday I was gutted not to win but when we set our targets this season the cups weren’t really high up on that list of priorities.”

Craig Stone’s 69th-minute volleyed goal won the FA Trophy qualifier for Ashford but Deal - appearing in the competition for the first time in 50 years - had reason to feel unlucky, hitting the woodwork late on through substitute Jack Penny.

“We played really well but we just couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net,” King said.

“Ashford scored from a set-piece and it just wasn’t our day. They are a good side and have a good management team, they defended resolutely. In the second half we had the better chances and their keeper made a couple of good saves.

“We were really pleased with how we played, we have stepped up a level but that was probably our strongest all round performance of the season.

“We just didn’t manage to score after starting the season in decent goalscoring form.

“There were lots of positives to take but disappointed that we came out on the wrong side of the result.”

Deal finished with a mass of fixtures last season, having combined league and cup runs, squeezing their squad to the max on the way to Southern Counties East title-glory, a run to the quarter-finals of the FA Vase and a semi-final spot in the Challenge Cup.

King said: “I don’t think we would be able to cope at this step with what we had to do last year.

“We have a good squad, a group I am happy with, but we haven’t got massive depth at this level and we have been rotating our players already.”

The Hoops were beaten by Margate on Tuesday night as they returned to Isthmian South East action.

Aaron Millbank had put them ahead early in the second half, finding the bottom corner with a strike, but a quick reply from Ibrahim Olutade levelled it up and the home side scored a 96th minute winner through Louie Atkins.

Following their trip to Margate, Deal are back home in the next two matches. Beckenham Town - who have made a solid start this season - visit the Charles Ground on Saturday before Hythe Town make the trip on Tuesday night for a Velocity Cup second round fixture.

Deal Sport Football Non League Ryman League Luke Cawdell