A goal on his 200th appearance for captain Macaulay Murray was a highlight of a frustrating weekend game for Deal Town.

The Hoops lost 2-1 at home to AFC Croydon Athletic, chasing the game after conceding two early goals, but a penalty from ‘Macca’ Murray gave them a lifeline.

It wasn’t Deal’s day at the Charles Ground but Murray’s milestone in front of another big crowd captured what manager Steve King feels is at the heart of their club.

King said: “We had four or five players on Saturday who have now played over 200 games for the club and that’s important for us. We’re a community club and that continuity is important.

“Macca is a Deal boy himself. In the early part of his career, he had a lot of success at other clubs, Whitstable, Ramsgate and Faversham and one of my biggest coups was to bring him home just before Covid.

“For him to have played 200 games, captained us a lot and to be involved in the title last year, it’s a great achievement. He is a player I have an awful lot of time for.

“We've been lucky that we've got loyal players and we also stay loyal to them. I think sometimes players get bad press but a lot of clubs will quite happily release four players once they lose a couple of games. I don’t blame some players for looking after themselves but we try and work both ways.

“If we're on a bit of a sticky run we try to stick with our players, and we hope that that will be reciprocated the other way round.

“We’re a town club and we’re here to represent the community and local area and certainly all the while I am at the club that's what we'll do.

“We'll train locally and we'll try and recruit as many of our players locally and we'll try and support them, and look after them. It might be a bit of a dying breed with clubs like that but we'll certainly try and continue it, and try and continue to be successful as long as I have my say.

“There’s no coincidence that we have the second highest average attendance in that league as a club (614, behind Ramsgate’s 967). Going back 10 years we were averaging crowds of 60.

“When you’re successful on the pitch it helps but the board have done a lot of work off the pitch and when you get a local team with local players it makes a lot of difference.”

Deal look pretty safe in the Isthmian South East this season but the weekend loss was a frustrating one for the manager after conceding those two early goals. The week before they’d done the same but in different circumstances.

King said: “Saturday was very frustrating. We shot ourselves in the foot again by giving away two really poor goals, early doors.

“I thought we played well on the day but as we’ve found out in step four this season, if you make mistakes, you get punished and it then makes it difficult to win games.

“Last week I could accept. Hythe were a massive physical side and we were very small. I am not saying we couldn’t do anything about the goals, we knew of their threat, but this week it was down to our mistakes.

“Poor defending, lack of concentration and completely avoidable from our point of view. I don’t think the two were related.

“We’re at the tough stage of the season where we haven’t got masses to play for - we’re not mathematically safe but our points tally should get us there.

“Last Saturday was probably one of the more frustrating days of the season for me because I actually thought we played quite well.

“We are big on our stats, our data, a lot of the stats were positive, but there is only one stat that counts and that’s how many times the ball goes in the net! You can’t give teams two-goal headstarts.”

King could have Ashley Miller back available this weekend. He’s been utilising some of the club’s emerging talent to plug some gaps and defender Zak Hammond took the man-of-the-match award at the weekend.

King said: “We've got a real good base of talent that we’re going to push on for the rest of this season and also moving forward as well.

“We’ve lost a few players recently and gone with youngsters from the under-18s and 23s and they have been doing a really good job for us and we’ll continue with that. They're good players.

“I've worked with them all the way through, from 14 to 15s. Our under-23s are doing very well. They're third in their division, up there with Maidstone and Chatham, big clubs. We believe in them and we believe they're the future.”

This Saturday’s game for Deal Town will be an emotional one. They play Sheppey United away, just a week after the island side announced the death of their manager Ernie Batten.

There will be a minute’s applause before kick off as the home club remember their greatest ever manager - one who led them to the SCEFL Premier Division title in 2022, a year they scooped four trophies.

King said: “It’s horrific. Firstly, my condolences go to Ernie’s family, and everybody there. He is someone I got to know well - a great guy.

“I don’t really want to go and play them - it’s a horrible one really. They will want to go and win for him and his memory but we’ll just prepare as normal.

“It certainly puts things into perspective. I was obviously very disappointed we lost on Saturday but when I heard that news it takes you back a bit and you think, ‘Crikey, I shouldn’t really be moaning about losing a game of football’.

“It is going to be an emotional day for everyone at Sheppey and they are a bit like us, struggling for form a little bit. It will probably be down to whichever side applies themselves on the day.

“As a club, we will support what they choose to do on the day. It will be a strange day but we’ll just focus on ourselves and when the game kicks off at 3pm we’ll be ready to go.”