A LAST DITCH strike from Charlie Marshall gave Dial all three points away to Richmond & Kew today (4 Oct.) at Ham Playing Fields.

Despite being forced to play the match with 10-men for over half-an-hour, Dial managed to come from behind, twice, to win 3-2 and move back to the top of the table.

It was always going to be tough going for Steve Brown's side who were depleted on personnel, with record goalscorer Harry Rice moving to Hanwell Town in midweek, and nine other players that were either injured or unavailable .

With just one-point from their previous five outings, Richmond & Kew didn’t play like a side propping up the table as they took the game to Dial from the first whistle.

Indecision from Darren Xavier almost gifted Omar Parsons with an early goal, but George Mead stood his ground to deny the imposing striker after just five minutes.

Parsons was again in the thick of the action four minutes later, but he skied his effort over the bar as Dial found themselves at sixes and sevens.

At the other end, Michael Burton shot straight into the arms of Nathan Oksuk from outside of the box, while Callum Abraham-Barlow was inches away from toe-poking the ball home after a great in-swinging cross from George Lawrence.

Mead needed to remain on guard to tip Parsons’ curling effort over the bar, before Marshall connected wide of Oksuk’s near post as the intensity of the match grew.

Josiah Loftus-Cheek and Lore Oshad both passed up good opportunities to score for the hosts on the half-hour mark. But it was Parsons who broke the deadlock when he muscled his way past Aidan Phillips and Marshall, before striking the ball into the bottom corner to give Richmond & Kew a well-deserved 44th-minute lead.

Celebrations, however, were short-lived when Zac Hawker headed Dial level two minutes later after a looping cross from Abraham-Barlow.

Dial were inches away from taking the lead 10 minutes after the interval when Lawrence latched onto a superb through ball from Hawker, only to see his effort rebound off the far post.

Mead again earned his stripes to deny Parsons one-on-one to help keep the visitors at bay three minutes later.

However, the game turned on a knife-edge when Abraham-Barlow was sent off in the 62nd-minute for a foul in box. Despite Miles Tapper’s penalty hitting the bar, Henry Burns was on hand to bundle in the rebound to reinstate the hosts' advantage.

With Dial down to 10-men, Danny Taylor entered the fray in a bid to bolster the visitors’ attacking options. And so it proved when Lawrence was brought down in the box by James Tidy, gifting the opportunity for Marshall to equalise from the spot in the 70th-minute.

As both teams pressed for a third goal, substitute Kaylen Bicknell was denied one-on-one by Mead, before Loftus-Cheek cut in from the flank, only to see his shot clip the top of the bar as the Dial faithful breathed another sigh of relief.

However, Dial’s never say die attitude came to their rescue once again when the ball dropped to Marshall on the edge of the box, who riffled in the winner in the fifth-minute of stoppage-time to give the visitors a 3-2 win.

Speaking after the match, Brown said: “With nine players away it wasn’t going to be pretty. But even taking that into account, I thought we were pretty poor by our own standards.

"Credit to Richmond [and Kew] though, I thought they played well and will, I’m sure, feel disappointed that they were left empty-handed.

"That said, we played well the previous four league matches, and sometimes you just have to do what it takes to win. It’s a good sign of a squad that never gives up.

“A big shout out to George Mead, who was excellent in goal and was rightly the man of the match,” he added.

DIAL SQUARE: Mead, Xavier (Taylor), Rose-Davies (Corner), Doran, Marshall, Phillips, Abraham-Barlow Hawker, Marshall, Burton (Laflin), Lawrence, Adag. Unused sub: Brown

MotM: George Mead

Dial are next in action away to AFC Royal Holloway in the league on 18 October 2025. For more fixture information, click here.