Dial passed up the opportunity to close the gap on league leaders Wimbledon Casuals this evening (31 March) after they lost 2-1 at home to fellow title-chasers Worcester Park.

A 74th-minute penalty from Skinners’ Tom Resch was enough to see the visitors complete a league double over Dial after George Frith had levelled the proceedings for the hosts in the first half.

Steve Brown made half-a-dozen changes to the side that came up short against The Skinners two-and-a-half weeks earlier, with recent signing Stephan Langley, Danny Taylor, Aidan Doran and captain Jimmy Norman most notably returning to the side to bolster Dial’s defensive and attacking line.

Veteran goalkeeper Andy Rider was also given an SOS (save our souls) to cover for George Mead, who was unavailable, along with influential winger Jordan Carter following the birth of his second child, Elvy.

With three points a must for both sides to keep their promotion hopes alive, defensive indecision within the Dial backline enabled Harrison Deacon to run through and cut across Rider to give the visitors an 11th-minute lead.

Although The Skinners’ advantage lasted just two minutes when George Frith managed to lob the ball over Daniel McKerracher from 22 yards to level the proceedings.

Five minutes later, Adam Carvell was fortunate not to be cautioned, or even sent-off, when he kicked back into the stomach of Adam Bicknell after a 50/50 tussle on the byline, with Dylan Lees-Jones, the referee, reportedly concluding that Bicknell had held his trailing leg first.

With tensions running high, a half-volley from James Vass, shortly after the half-hour mark, flew just wide of the post after McKerracher had punched the ball away from the head of Bicknell.

Dan Cenzano wasn’t far away from giving Dial the lead just two minutes after the break when his Marco van Basten-style volley, from Norman’s freekick, whizzed just over the bar, in what would have been a goal-of-the-season contender had it gone in.

As the game started to boil-over, Lees-Jones summoned both captains for a second time, which later saw the dismissal of Skinners' coach Tom Batten from the dugout.

However, the turning point in the match was still to come when assistant referee Wayne Ingram flagged that the ball had deflected off the arm of Vass from a cross after Lees-Jones had initially awarded a corner. Following a brief consultation with his assistant, Lees-Jones pointed to the penalty-spot, which Tom Resch stepped up to convert in the 74th-minute to reinstate his side’s lead.

In response, Charlie Marshall could only find the arms of McKerracher from his free-kick, with the visitors experiencing the same outcome at the other end.

With two minutes of normal time remaining, Taylor managed to dispossess McKerracher before squaring the ball to Harry Laflin on the edge of the penalty box. Unfortunately, the former Ascot United marksman was unable to keep his shot under the bar, as the visitors breathed a sigh of relief to register a hard-fought 2-1 win.

Despite the result, Dial could still clinch promotion to the National League System (part of the English football pyramid) this coming bank holiday weekend, if fellow promotion-chasers CB Hounslow & Abbots lose away to Keens Park Rangers on Saturday (4 April) and Dial beat Addlestone away on Monday.

Brown remained tight-lipped regarding his thoughts after the game, albeit he knows that Dial are still potentially just one game away from securing promotion, and cannot allow the disappointment of losing against Worcester Park to derail their mission.

DIAL SQUARE: Rider, Rogers (Hayes), Vass (Rose-Davies), Doran (Laflin), Norman, Langley, Taylor, Ewen, Bicknell (Marshall), Frith, Cenzano. Unused sub: Brown

MotM: George Frith