Deal Town finished their season on a high and the focus will quickly turn to building a team to have an even better campaign next time around.

Derek Hares led his side to fourth place in the Southern Counties East Premier Division, a place confirmed by Saturday’s final round of fixtures. The Hoops beat Crowborough 3-0 in front of a crowd of more than 600 at The Charles Ground.

The management team will meet with the playing squad in the next few days.

Hares said: “We will need to find out who is staying and who is going and we’ll probably need to recruit two or three players and build on what has been started.

“It was a brilliant day at the club on Saturday, over 600 people there, the place has really taken off. The board are doing a great job behind the scenes, the team has done well and we just have to try and build on it, really.

“We’ve finished fourth, it was a good performance on Saturday, so that was very good, especially after the previous week [conceding seven against Sheppey]. It was a very good ending to the season.

“We have had most of these lads for four or five years and they are still young, Most of them are in their early twenties and have got 100-150 games behind them, so although they are young they have got that experience to go with it.

“Hopefully we can keep the core of what we have got and just add a few to it.”

Talks over next season’s budget have yet to take place.

One of the senior men in the squad, Liam Hark, made his 250th appearance for the club on Saturday.

Chatham and Sheppey have dominated the league this season and both have won promotion to the Isthmian League next term, but Hares knows others will want to stake their claim in 2022/23.

He said: “The top two were always going to win it and I think they were two of the best teams we have had in the league for years.

“Without those two in the league you would like to think you have a better chance but just because you finish fourth you can’t just win it next year.

“We are still going to have Glebe and Tunbridge Wells and teams like that in the league, and there is always someone who pops up that you are not expecting. Whitstable Town could come down, we just have to start again.

“To finish fourth in the league has been very good for all the players, they have been excellent. It was a little unfortunate in the last six or seven weeks because we have picked up some key injuries to big players.

“We have had no Tom Chapman, Kane Smith, Connor Coyne and Jack Paxman has missed a few games - players that would normally start - and that affected us towards the end.

“I think we could have got third but we would have never caught the top two. We competed well with them both at home, but away from home they well and truly beat us.”

Deal had 623 there on Saturday to watch them beat Crowborough, with second-half goals from Ben Chapman (2) and Troy Howard clinching the points.

The Hoops went into the game needing at least a point to guarantee fourth spot. A win for them and a draw for fifth-placed Kennington assured them of fourth, equalling their best finish at this level since a top-four place in the Kent League back in 2003.

Hares has been grateful for the support this season, with average gates of around 300 at Deal.

“The fans really get behind the team and it spurs them on as well,” he said.

“As a player there is nothing better than playing in front of a lot of people. There has been times we have had 50-60 here, some teams in this league don’t have great support and some have fantastic support, look at Sheppey, 1,200, that is unbelievable for football at this level.

“I have always said that if you get it right off the pitch then you have always got a much better chance of getting it right on the pitch.

“There was a great atmosphere on Saturday, the bar was full up, it was a really good day. There was something on that game for us, we wanted to finish fourth and to finish the season on a high, we have achieved both of them. Overall we have to look back and think it has been a really good season, the boys have done really well.”

Awards were handed out after the match on Saturday with the supporters’ player-of-the-year trophy going to Troy Howard, top scorer Billy Munday was voted players’ player while the young player award went to Alfie Foster and the manager’s pick was Macaulay Murray.