Deal Town 1-3 Sittingbourne - It was a pretty dead nullified game but we're not going to get judged on our results against Sittingbourne this season, admits Deal Town boss Steve King

Deal Town 1 – 3 Sittingbourne
Location	The Charles Sports Ground, St Leonards Road, Deal, Kent CT14 9AU
Kickoff	09/08/2025 15:00

DEAL TOWN  1-3  SITTINGBOURNE
Isthmian League South East Division
Saturday 9 August 2025
Stephen McCartney reports from Charles Sports Ground

DEAL TOWN manager Steve King says his side are not going to get judged on their results against Sittingbourne this season after losing their opening game of their second Isthmian League South East Division campaign.

This was an awful game of football for the sun-kissed crowd of 607 fans at the Charles Sports Ground, a throwback to the dark ages of two direct non-league teams playing little football and over reliant on long throws and other set-pieces throughout this eighth-tier dross derby.

Deal Town central midfielder Jack Paxman threw ELEVEN long throws into the Sittingbourne box during the first half.  Sittingbourne left-back Bagasan Graham threw the ball into Deal Town’s box on four occasions and centre-half Jack Steventon on nine occasions.

All of the home side’s seven corners came in the first half, all of five Sittingbourne’s corners came during their dominant second-half, as Ryan Maxwell’s side ran out deserved winners and are in fifth-place in the pecking order, while King’s men sit in seventeenth-place (bottom six) after 90 minutes.

With both sides playing ugly direct football, it proved not to be a shock when the first three goals were scored with headers. 

Ben Chapman headed in a three-man set-piece to give Deal Town an early lead, before Sittingbourne scored twice in 117 seconds through French midfielder Jean-Baptiste Fischer, 27.

Sittingbourne dominated the second half and there was a bit more football played and Luke Woodward’s clinical finish sealed the points in a forgettable derby, the worst Isthmian League South East Division game witnessed by this website in a very long time.

Only five of Sittingbourne’s sixteen man squad were involved in their heartbreaking play-off final defeat to Burgess Hill Town, who joined champions Ramsgate in the Isthmian League Premier Division this season after winning on penalties.

“Frustrating afternoon. I think over the course of 90 minutes they were the deserved winners,” said King, who was the only manager who made himself available for post-match questions.

“I thought for sort of 30-35 minutes, I thought we played really well. We did everything we wanted and then our own Achilles heel, we’ve given away two goals in a minute both from set-pieces.  An unnecessary free-kick we didn’t need to give away and then a long throw.

“We know that’s a threat for them and then I said to the boys I think that’s one of the hardest teams to chase a game against. I think that was shown last year when Sittingbourne got in front last year, they didn’t drop many points.

“They’re a big, physical side. They’re well-organised and I thought we actually did well to stay in the game.”

Deal Town started this Kent derby on the front foot but Sittingbourne almost grabbed the lead with nine minutes and 15 seconds on the clock.

Graham was left in oceans of space to deliver a left-footed hanging dipping cross, which goalkeeper James Tonkin was left in two minds whether to come and collect and was relieved to see the ball clip the outside of the top of the near-post.

“They’re a threat, obviously from wide areas.  The two full-backs are very experienced, good players. They put good delivery into the box. We knew exactly what we would come up against.  We learnt a lot about Ryan Maxwell’s sides watching them last year and they’re very, very well-organised,” said King.

Deal Town took the lead following Paxman’s second long throw, timed at 13 minutes and 38 seconds on the clock, although Sittingbourne’s man-mountain players dealt with most of the home side’s other long throws.

Paxman lined up a long throw in line to the 18-yard box from the right, the ball was flicked on by a towering near-post header from centre-half Alfie Foster and Ben Chapman buried his diving header into the right-hand corner past the diving keeper to open his goalscoring account for the new season, having scored 10 goals last season, as Deal Town finished in the top seven.

“I thought the amount of set-pieces we had in the first half probably showed our territorial dominance, I think,” said King.

“We must’ve had 11 of those long throws in the first half. We must’ve had seven corners in the first half so 11 long throws and seven corners shows that you’ve been getting the ball in the right areas a lot and I was really pleased with how we played but goals change games don’t they and that was a good goal to be fair. It was a great header.”

Deal Town produced some football on the deck in the 24^th minute when left-back Alex Green played the ball into winger Ashley Miller, who played a 20-yard ball inside to the unmarked Paxman, who drilled a right-footed drive sailing high over the Sittingbourne bar from 35-yards.

“We moved the ball well, probably a little bit too far out to shoot there but he’s scored one from that range last year, so you never know,” said King.

“I thought we were quite comfortable at that point. I think if you came in the ground and didn’t know anything about either side, I thought you’d probably say we were the better side. We was on the front foot but we put a lot of dangerous balls in the box and the game plan was going how we wanted it to at that point.”

Things started to unravel for the home side when referee Harrison Clark pulled out a yellow card to caution Deal Town’s 18-year-old right-back Zak Hammond and Sittingbourne scored from the resulting free-kick, with 25 minutes and 55 seconds on the clock.

Faced with a two-man wall, Sittingbourne’s central midfielder Rio Davidson-Phipps whipped in a quality delivery with his right-foot just outside the corner of the box towards a couple of team-mates at the near post and Fischer glanced his downward header to beat keeper James Tonkin at his near-post.

King said: “It came from our corner. I thought Zak started the game outstanding to be fair. I thought the first half-an-hour, I thought he was brilliant, really on the front foot. He just got caught under it and then he got caught in two minds. He let the winger get their first and had to foul him and then he’s got himself booked.

“For a young player, he’s only 18 Zak. He’s done really well for us but it’s a big learning curve. He’s had a brilliant 30 minutes, probably our best player in my opinion for the first 30 minutes and then one incident we switched off a little bit and suddenly it’s one-all, you’re booked and the whole game changes.

“It’s a brilliant delivery from the free-kick, isn’t it?  That’s top class. I pride ourselves on defending set-pieces but balls like that are so tough to defend.  I will watch it back and see if there’s anything we could’ve done better but it was a quality ball and a good header.”

Sittingbourne turned the game on its head and grabbed the lead with 27 minutes and 58 seconds on the clock.

Steventon launched the second of his long throws into the Deal Town penalty area and no one picked up Fischer inside the box and his looping header sailed over a flat-footed Tonkin into the top far corner.

“Really poor from our point of view. I thought we were poor from kick-off. We’ve given the ball straight back from kick-off and which then put us under pressure and we then defended our own corner. We then had to give a throw away and then I think there’s a little nudge in the box and he’s looped it in at the back post,” said King.

“I don’t think he’s trying to score. I think he’s trying to help it on but it’s just a killer.  We had a habit of doing it last year against top sides where we concede one and we concede two and we worked really hard to get out of that.

“Today, we’ve let ourselves down and it’s just turned this game on its head. At 1-0, I’m thinking we’re looking alright here. We looked quite comfortable. We obviously knew they had threats. Don’t get me wrong but we look ok and then you’re 2-1 down.

“This league’s unforgiving especially at the top end and we’ve seen that again today.”

This was not a game for any of Sittingbourne’s wingers, as Ellis Brown and Kareem Isiaka were not allowed to get the ball and run at Deal Town’s back four.  The only time you noticed them was when they were hooked towards the end of the game as they trudged off the pitch.

Steventon’s third long throw came in from the right and was cleared, the ball was recycled back by the centre-half and Davidson-Phipps’ right-footed hooked volley from 25-yards sailed past the top of the far post in the 36^th minute.

Paxman launched his ninth long throw into the Sittingbourne box and the ball came back out to him and he latched onto the loose ball to drill a right-footed volley screaming past the foot of the near-post.

“A little bit unlucky. I thought we looked dangerous. We pride ourselves on our set-pieces but they’re a hard side to be good at set-pieces because they’re so big but I thought we looked a threat from them today.

“I thought our delivery was good, our movement was good and we know across this league we’ll score goals across the season from these situations.”

The towering Fischer was to be denied his hat-trick by a comfortable near-post catch from Tonkin in the 44^th minute.

Graham’s fourth long throw bounced off the aerially dominant Fischer’s head and was comfortably caught by the returning Tonkin.

King brought up the elephant in the room – both teams were over-reliant on set-pieces which made the game ugly to watch.

“It was almost an old-school game of non-league football wasn’t it, like no-one giving each other an inch, balls going forward, lots of set-pieces, physical sides, probably wasn’t the greatest spectacle in terms of quality flowing football but it was sort of played at that intensity,” admitted King.

“I don’t ever have a go at people who aren’t involved in football but sometimes opposition make you play a certain way and you may have designs to go out and play a certain way.

“Anyone who was here on Tuesday against Hilltop (4-1 FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round Replay win after a 2-2 away draw), will see how we want to play. Sometimes good opposition stop you doing that and I think Sittingbourne are one of those sides.  They stop other teams doing what you want to do and that’s why they’re so effective and I expect them to get promoted come May to be honest.”

King explained the reasons behind hooking Miller (27 minutes) and Hammond (44).

“Ash Miller was an injury. It’s a hard ground, it’s an ongoing injury, struggling a little bit with shin splints on the hard ground and then the second one was just precautionary.

“Zak Hammond, obviously he got booked for the goal, a very inexperienced referee, they were getting round him and I didn’t trust if he made another tackle he wasn’t going to get sent off and we knew against 10 men they’re a hard team to chase against anyway but with 10 men it’s neigh impossible.

“We were going to wait until half-time but someone I don’t know where four minutes came from in the first half. I thought if we were going to do it at half-time, we might as well do it now. That was just tactical.

“Alex Green (84 minutes), he’s just managing one so hopefully that’s just a precaution. We’ll assess him and hope he’ll be good for Tuesday.”

Only one manager revealed what his thoughts were at half-time today.

“It was a really hard half-time team talk really because I don’t think we done loads wrong but goals change games and it was two really poor goals,” said King.

“I said our main aim was to try to stay in the game for 75 minutes, so we said we don’t think they were a sort of sides you could chase it against.  Normally, you know what we’re like, we like to chase games but actually today wasn’t a day to go and chase it, so we were actually quite happy with the first 20 minutes of the second half.

“We said if we can get to sort of 65 minutes still 2-1 then we can really have a go.”

Foster fouled quiet Sittingbourne striker Troy Chiabi and Davidson-Phipps’ resulting free-kick was flicked on by Fischer at the near-post and Isiaka cut inside and onto his right-foot to curl his shot over the top of the far post from outside the penalty area inside the opening four minutes.

The Sittingbourne fans chanted “you’re not saving this’ at Tonkin as he lined up a five-man wall for Davidson-Phipps 30-yard free-kick – which inevitably dipped narrowly over the top of the left-hand upright.

Deal Town didn’t look like scoring as Sittingbourne dominated as the game entered the final half-an-hour.

“They’re a side that they attack in their shape and that means when the ball transitions they’re a very hard side to transition against because they make sure they’re always set when they attack,” explained King.

“You get a lot of sides we played Hilltop, complete opposite. When they attack they bombed everyone forward and when you got the ball back there was loads of space to transition but Sittingbourne are really good at always being set and that means when you do get the ball back we’re a good counter-attacking side but we really struggled to create anything. We got to give them some credit for that.”

Brown started to find a way into this throwback, and latched onto a big kick upfield from Sittingbourne goalkeeper Mitchell Beeney, before laying the ball inside to Chiabi, whose right-footed drive from 15-yards was comfortably beaten away by Tonkin in the 28^th minute.

“I expect him to save those.  They weren’t bombing on at us in the second half. It wasn’t like they’re going to score, they’re going to score, they’re going to score.

“It was a pretty dead nullified game and we were happy with that. I thought we had our moment but yes.”

Graham put the ball into the Deal penalty area and the threatening Fischer placed his deflected shot into the base of the side netting.

Strong Deal Town penalty shouts were waved away by referee Harrison Clark just 114 seconds before Sittingbourne killed the game off with their third goal.

Substitute winger Tom Chapman broke through the middle of the pitch on the counter-attack and played in his brother Ben, who was brought down by Graham inside the box, who got away with it.

“I think it’s a penalty and that’s a massive decision,” admitted King.

Sittingbourne sealed the victory by scoring their third goal with 32 minutes and 53 seconds on the clock.

Substitute D’sean Theobalds’ quickly taken throw-in from the right saw the impressive man-of-the-match Fischer cut into the box and cut the ball back for Woodward, to clinically crack a first time right-footed drive past the diving Tonkin into the right-hand corner from 20-yards.

“For me the assistant (Ismail Isik) has given a handball, which the boys just can’t understand and then the throw-in’s our way and when the throw in goes your way, we’ve gone to take the throw-in and they’ve picked it up and they’ve thrown it in and we’re outnumbered and it’s a great finish, isn’t it but like it’s just an incorrect decision in an important area of the pitch.

“I don’t like having a go at officials because we’ve done lots of things wrong.”

Sittingbourne played 31 home games in all competitions last season, attracting 13,872 fans to Woodstock Park, while Deal Town attracted 15,114 fans in 26 home games, so going by those statistics Deal Town generate more matchday revenue than their opponents but Deal Town are nowhere near the same ball park as Sittingbourne when it comes to player recruitment and spending power.

“We can’t bring the quality of players Sittingbourne can bring in, so we’re up against it and when you’re up against it, in games like this and then those big moments go against you, it makes it doubly hard,” said King.

“I know where we’re at. I know our side. I know our squad. I know what we can do but I thought we did quite a lot of things well today.

“We’re not at Sittingbourne’s level. You look at where they brought their players from in the summer and where I signed my players from.  I’ve signed two Step Five players from SCEFL and a lad back from university. I’ve got an 18-year-old local lad starting at full-back, an 18-year-old lad coming off at half-time and they’re bringing in ex-Football League, ex National League South, which is their prerogative and fair play. They’re a good club. Max is a good manager and well run and I’ve got no problem but they’re not the barometer that we judge ourselves against.

“We’re not going to get too down after today. I hate losing. We’re frustrated, we’re disappointed but we’re not going to beat ourselves up.”

There was still time for striker Daniel Parish to make a late cameo role and his right-footed drive forced Tonkin into diving to his left to save to prevent Sittingbourne grabbing a flattering fourth goal (47:40), by which point a large number of home fans had vacated their positions and headed to the exit.

“After 3-1, they’re just going to keep putting it in there. Every set-piece they’re a threat and I thought we did well but I’m not sounding negative here because we scored twice in added time last week (at Hilltop) but against a side like that when you go two goals behind with 10 minutes left you don’t want to get beat sort of four or five.

“We’ll just lick your wounds down. We’ve got 41 more league games, let’s not get beat five or six and everyone will look at the score tomorrow, Deal Town 1-3 Sittingbourne and they’ll go that’s what everyone expects.

“We’re not going to get judged on our results against Sittingbourne this season., We know the teams that we’re going to be competing against and we’ve got to try to beat and that’s going to be our aim.”

Newly-promoted pair VCD Athletic and Faversham Town played out a 1-1 draw at Oakwood today and Tommy Warrilow’s Lilywhites host King’s men on Tuesday night in ninth-place.

“We know Tuesday’s going to be tough at Faversham but we’ll go there and look forward to that and we’ll give a good account of ourselves,” said King.

“I say to people when we won the SCEFL we had two points after four games and we won the league by nine points so you never panic in the first three or four games.  So, the last thing you’ll see from us is panic and we’ll look forward to Tuesday, trying to get a result.

“We want to consolidate, that’s the first job. Everyone mentions the dreaded second season syndrome.  It took us 66 years to get to (this level) so we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves. We want to consolidate. We want to make sure we stay in the division.

“If we can aim in and around the same places that will be great. If we can improve a little bit and see what the rest of the league does, could we force towards the last play-off place? But until we know what the league’s going to look like….

“Last year was a weird league wasn’t it because you had Sittingbourne and Ramsgate were miles better than everyone, then you had Burgess Hill and Margate. I had Merstham in our bracket. We beat them home and away. They only ended up 13 points ahead of us and they’re not a million miles ahead of us.

“But the other four, no one knows what’s going to happen in the league this year. Are there going to be four teams again that fly away? Is it going to be one? Is it going to be two? It’s going to be hard for us. If we can somewhere near the 65 points we got last year.

“We’re on a long-term project at this club. We’re never boom and bust. It’s not ‘it’s got to be this season we’ve got to do that.’ We’re consistent, we’re solid, we know over 42 games that will stand us in good stead. We know we’ll be a consistent side in this league. We’ll lose some games. We know that but we’ll try to put a performance every time we come on. If we’re better than the opposition, I expect us to beat them.”

King revealed he is looking to bring in fresh blood defensively.

“Yes, we are. We are looking to bring in fresh blood but it’s that time of the season where everybody pre-season goes where all the promises are, goes where the money maybe and the get two or three weeks into the season, they’re sat on the bench for a couple of weeks and then suddenly the phone starts ringing and players who won’t talk to you in May are suddenly ringing you up.

“I think we need a couple defensively. I think defensively we need a bit more depth. We’ve been looking at players.  You look to bring in players to make you better.

“We’ll be patient and we’ll get the right fit in. It’s a long season and you don’t rush to sign people now who in three weeks you regret it and then there’s three or four better options become available.”

Deal Town: James Tonkin, Zak Hammond (Morgan Page 44), Alex Green (Jack Palmby 84), Macauley Murray, Maxwell Niblett, Alfie Foster, Wesley Hennessey, Jack Paxman, Rory Smith (Tom Chapman 72), Ben Chapman, Ashley Miller (Ifeoluwa Oni 27).
Sub: Daniel Gannon

Goal: Ben Chapman 14

Booked: Zak Hammond 26, Maxwell Niblett 69

Sittingbourne: Mitchell Beeney, Gavin Hoyte, Bagasan Graham, Luke Woodward (Ayman El-Mogharbel 89), Jack Steventon, Chris Arthur, Kareem Isiaka (Correy Davidson 89), Rio Davidson-Phipps (D’Sean Theobalds 72), Troy Chiabi (Daniel Parish 89), Jean-Baptiste Fischer, Ellis Brown (Jaden Crowhurst 88).

Goals: Jean-Baptiste Fischer 26, 28, Luke Woodward 77

Attendance: 607
Referee: Mr Harrison Clark
Assistants: Mr Nick Bone & Mr Ismail Isik