DEAL TOWN 2 LORDSWOOD 0

By Deal Town

By Kevin Redsull

Goals in each half from Billy Munday and Brad Baker earned Deal their third league win of the season on Tuesday in a match which saw three players sent off. Lordswood’s James Alderman was the first to go with a straight red card for his 24th-minute late tackle on Liam Hark and six minutes later Hoops’ captain Kane Smith followed suit for a high challenge on Sam Stace. Then, with 10 minutes of the game left, the Medway side were reduced to nine men when Kieran Sharp received a second yellow card. The three sendings off summed up a niggly physical encounter which the officials were always struggling to control, but in the end the Hoops picked up a deserved three points against a Lordswood side who have now lost six of their opening eight league matches. Hoops’ assistant-manager Steve King, whose side had drawn 0-0 at Balham on Saturday, “tweeted” after the game: “Another clean sheet and important three points for the boys, (who) stuck to the job and showed great spirit.”Deal started brightly and Brad Baker and Luke Eldridge both went close before Munday made the breakthrough by sneaking in at the far post to half-volley home Alfie Foster’s 15th-minute free kick.But, with the two red cards soon following, the Hoops lost some of their early attacking fluidity and it was Lordswood who finished the half the strongest. First, Sharp scuffed a good chance wide and then seconds later he was denied by a superb one-handed save from Hoops’ keeper James Tonkin.So Deal clung on to their lead until the break and they also survived another “close shave” five minutes after the restart when Macauley Murray cleared Charlie Plummer’s downward header off the line. That was the closest either side came to a goal for the next 30 minutes or so, but Deal eventually grabbed the second goal “cushion” they needed when Baker scored his first goal for the club by finishing off Howard’s 78th-minute cross. Once again the young winger had proved the Hoops’ most potent attacking threat and three minutes later Sharp summed up Lordswood’s frustration by chopping down Howard in full flight to earn his second yellow card.Deal: Tonkin, Foster, Smith, Hark, Paxman, Murray, Munday, Eldridge, Baker, Chapman, Howard.Attendance: 203

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