Manager Steve King will have no qualms about throwing some of Deal’s youth-team players into the first-team spotlight on a more regular basis.
King’s Hoops all-but confirmed their Isthmian South East status for another season after they beat Sevenoaks 3-1 last weekend.
While eighth-placed Deal could even secure a position in the play-offs, their chances of a top-five finish are remote, with league games running out.
King brought midfielder Morgan Page and fellow youngster, forward Owen Wilkinson, off the substitutes’ bench against Sevenoaks.
The likes of Page and Wilkinson – along with some of the club’s young prospects – may be handed further senior chances soon, too.
“We’re in that catch-22 situation,” King said.
“Jack Penny is back, but he had to come on slightly earlier than planned on Saturday.
“With people like Morgan Page and Owen Wilkinson, we’re going to put some trust in them.
“If we do get another win, we’re probably safe, but we would need to go on a monster run to get into the play-off places.
“We will always have one eye out on players that might become available next season who, maybe, we can get in sooner. Max Niblett and Tommy Lamb have gone back to America.
“There’s others out on dual registration but I don’t want to bring them back, just to be on our bench.
“We work with them all the way through and they’re all beginning to become very good players.
“It’s hard when you first get promoted to throw a load of young players in all at once but, if they get chances, they can get themselves into the team. Then, they have big summers to really cement their places for next year.
“We have introduced the under-23s this year as part of that pathway.
“They’ve all got an opportunity – this season and at the start of next season – to show that they’re capable of playing consistently at this level.”
Sevenoaks headed to Deal on a four-game winning streak, albeit they did lose key winger Jefferson Aibangbee to Ramsgate last week, and they proved no match for the Hoops, who leapfrogged them in the table.
King reflected: “We were full value for the three points, in my opinion. We limited them to very few chances and we were pretty dominant throughout.
“It takes us to 40 points and closer to where we want to be.
“Tom Chapman has been brilliant, really, this season.
“He was just as good as he had been on Saturday – but he didn’t really stand out.
“That just shows it was a proper team performance.”
Winger Ashley Miller struck midway through the second period, having won a first-half penalty, converted by Macca Murray, while defender Alfie Foster was credited with Deal’s third from a Penny corner.
But King revealed: “Alfie didn’t actually score, he just ran off like he had! He has had a good laugh he’s been credited with it by the club – and by everyone else.
“Ash was outstanding. Him and Rory Smith are as good as anyone in the league on their day.
“Rory was outstanding and Ash won the penalty, and scored the goal that put us back in front, so I was delighted with both of them.”
King reckons the Hoops have little margin for error if they are to get to a points target which may earn them a position in the top five, estimating they’ll need as many as 11 victories from 14 matches, ahead of Saturday’s game at relegation-threatened Phoenix Sports.
“If we’re to stand any chance of finishing in the play-off places, we’ll need to beat some of the teams battling relegation,” he said.
“I think we need to win one more game to be safe but, also, we need to pick up points from these sorts of games to keep ourselves in that play-off picture.”
When the teams met at Deal in early December, goals from Tom Chapman and Rory Smith saw the Hoops to a 2-1 win.
Their home match against Steyning Town Community fell victim to the weather on Tuesday.
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