Full name | Deal Town Football Club |
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Nickname(s) | The Hoops |
Founded | 1908 |
Ground | Charles Sports Ground, Deal |
Chairman | Dean Hill |
Manager | Derek Hares |
League | Southern Counties East League Premier Division |
2016–17 | Southern Counties East League Premier Division, 13/20 |
Deal Town Football Club is a football club based in Deal in Kent, England. FA Vase winners in 2000, they are currently members of the Southern Counties East League Premier Division and play at the Charles Sports Ground.
The club was established as Deal Cinque Ports in 1908, and initially played in the Thanet League and East Kent League. They joined Division Two East of the Kent League in 1909, but left the league after two seasons. They rejoined the Division Two East of the league in 1919, but left again at the end of the 1919–20 season. They joined the Eastern Section of the Kent Amateur League in 1928, but left the league in 1930. The club re-entered the Kent League league for a third time in 1933, joining Division Two, but left in 1935, returning to the renamed Kent County Amateur League. They finished as runners-up in Division One of the Eastern Section in 1935–36, and later returned to Division Two of the Kent League for a fourth spell in the league in 1939.
Deal did not take part in the 1944–45 season, but spent the 1945–46 season in the East Division of the Eastern Section of the Kent County Amateur League, finishing as runners-up. They returned to the Kent League in 1946–47, when they became members of Division One. Despite finishing bottom in their first season, they were not relegated, and went on to win the league in 1953–54. They later won the League Cup in 1957–58, beating Margate in the final. When the league folded in 1959, Deal became founder members of the Aetolian League, and were runners-up in its first season. In 1963 the club moved up to Division One of the Southern League. However, after three seasons of struggle and finishing bottom of the division in 1965–66, they left the league to join the Premier Division of the Greater London League (a merger of the Aetolian League and the London League), in which they won the League Cup in 1967–68, and were runners-up in 1968–69. In 1970 league reorganisation saw them placed in the 'B' section of the league.