With summer drawing to a close and the last of the blue skies peeking through, Deal Town made the long trip to Peacehaven for a crucial fixture that would hopefully see our league campaign come to life and Deal leaving with some points on the board.

As the game got underway the first thing that was evident was the behaviour of the pitch. It was a 3G pitch in a lovely little seaside setting (& a decent burger!) but the pitch itself was heavily covered in rubber pellets, to the point where the bounce became less ‘slick’ than you would normally expect. If anything, the ball seemed to react by ‘holding up ‘in the surface.

It was P&T who got off to the brighter start, a straight through ball between the right-side of a staggered Deal defensive line found the no.9, who composedly slotted the ball past the oncoming Tonks to put the home side into the lead. 1-0 down after 10 minutes and a reminder to Deal that we would have to work hard to get a result out of today. This pattern of play continued for the first 25 minutes of the game, Deal caught out once again with another straight ball that was put over by the P&T striker.

It wasn’t until the 26th minute that Deal had their first real chance. A corner was whipped into the middle of the box, which Strouts managed to flick on to Ben Chapman who barely had time to react but managed to guide the chance on target only for it to be well saved on the line. It didn’t take much longer for Ben Chapman to grab Deal’s equaliser, however. A long throw from the right was not dealt with by the P&T defence and after a bit of head tennis the ball fell to the feet of BC who dribbled past two defenders and made the most of a fortunate bobble or two to bury the ball in the bottom left corner. A great finish and an apt way for Ben to get his 100th competitive goal for the club. He joins an exclusive list and continues to be ever-present and essential to this club. Congratulations BC!

The remainder of the half passed without too much to report, save for Deal having another back post attempt saved on the line, this time from Owen Wilkinson in almost a carbon copy of the earlier BC attempt. So, 1-1 at half-time with all to play for.

The second half followed a slightly tetchier pattern where neither team really dominated the play in any manner but there were vital moments within it that could have been decisive nonetheless. Both teams made substitution in an attempt to win the match, and it was through one of these subs – Rory Smith - that Deal looked to have got ahead in the 74th minute. Good link up work down the right-hand side between Tom Chapman & Rory resulted in a cutback & shot by TC towards the far post. The parried save was tapped in by Rory Smith but quickly chalked out by the linesman, so the score remained 1-1.

On the 80-minute mark, undoubtedly the 30 seconds of play occurred that would ensure Deal came away from this game with something to show. First, a quick double save from Tonks, closing the space to the striker and not allowing anything past him. Then in the next passage of play a P&T player unleashed an absolute thunderbolt towards the top corner only for Tonks to dive high to his left to top it onto the bar. You’ll struggle to see a better save all year. A cover tackle from Strouts in a potentially dangerous scenario quashed any home hopes of the win and Deal travelled home with their first league point on the board and looking ahead to a run of successive home fixtures.

Words by Zack Foulds