By Brian Davis

Whyteleafe are up to third in the Kent League Premier Division after a comfortable 3-0 win at nine-man Deal Town.

Deal’s home record of six games undefeated with 24 goals scored suggested this could be a tricky encounter, but after the early exchanges Leafe dominated their Kent hosts.

Both sides hit the woodwork early doors with Paul Scott having the dubious honour for Leafe.

But with 20 minutes gone, Leafe took control - Matt Ferdinando headed over from a Louis Clark free kick, and then Jerson Dos Santos picked the ball up in the middle of the park, took a run at the defence and hit a 30 yard dipping shot that went just over the bar.

The host’s defence then did well to get in the way of a Scott shot, deflecting it for a corner, and Ferdinando also had a shot blocked moments later.

Leafe were putting a lot of pressure on the Deal goal, winning a series of corners, and Bentley Graham's 32nd minute corner was flicked on by Getro Kilapi into the path of Tommy Smith who headed just over.

The breakthrough should have come just before the break when Ferdinando was brought down from behind for a penalty – however, Ryan Maxwell put the spot kick wide.

At the break, Leafe had to substitute keeper Dave Wilkinson with a suspected broken finger, but they came out strongly and took the lead in the first minute of the half.

A long ball found Graham on the right of the box, and he pulled it back into the path of Gilapi who fired home from close range.

Leafe were soon two up when a fine through ball from Graham split the defence and Dos Santos was quickly onto it and shot past the advancing keeper into the bottom far corner of the net.

Deal’s frustration began to boil over and a spate of yellow cards ended with Sam Pain being sent off for a crude challenge on Smith.

Not much later, Deal were reduced to nine men when Charlie Walsh was sent off for retaliation.

The closing minutes were all one-way traffic with the only question being how many Leafe would score. Had they continued playing the passing football that they had done all game it may have been more, but in the end they had to settle for a third goal in the 84th minute when Graham's deflected shot went into the net.

Ollie Thornton was unlucky not to add a fourth in stoppage time when his shot was brilliantly headed off the line.

Leafe travel to Corinthian this weekend looking to extend their unbeaten run in the league to seven.