Deal Town’s wait for their first league win of the season came to an end on Tuesday night with a 1-0 victory at Rochester United.

Warren Smith’s 41st-minute strike gave caretaker manager Dave Johncock his first victory in charge and, although it wasn’t enough to lift Town off the bottom of the Southern Counties East League, Johncock was still understandably relieved.

He said: “It’s nice to get that first win on the board, although I didn’t detect a feeling of relief from the players after.

“They knew that if they kept producing the kind of performance they have done over the past few matches, the results would come and that’s what happened.”

“Apart from getting the three points, keeping a clean sheet was also encouraging. Now we’ve got something to build on.”

Deal, however, may now be without a fixture for three weeks. Their scheduled opponents this Saturday, Greenwich Borough, are involved in the FA Cup second qualifying round and then the following Saturday, it’s the next round of the FA Vase, from which Town have already been eliminated.

“It will be a bit of a pain if we don’t play the following Saturday as well but I understand there’s a chance the league might rearrange a fixture for us.”