Dial suffered another setback in West Sussex today (22 Aug) after losing 4-1 away to Infinity at The Lumacon Stadium.

It marked Dial's fourth consecutive defeat since the start of the season, as boss Brown continues to struggle for continuity due to player shortage.

A 53-minute strike from Jimmy Norman cancelled out Ashton Leigh's opener, but a second half hat-trick from Zach Willett gave the hosts a resounding victory to move up to second in the table.

Brown was hamstrung coming into the match with 11 players either injured or unavailable, which prompted the return of 40-year-old Matt Bunyan to line up alongside 37-year-old Jimmy Norman in the heart of defence.

On a very dry, hard pitch, which looked more like a wheat field after harvest, it was a relatively uneventful opening 25 minutes. But that appeared to change when George Lawrence found the back of the net for Dial on the half-hour mark, only for his effort to be chalked off for offside.

Seventeen-year-old goalkeeper Callum Miles, making only his third start for Dial, managed to keep the hosts at bay with some decent saves, with Ross Ewen heading over for Dial at the other end as the game began to open up.

It was The Phoenixes though who broke the deadlock when Ashton Leigh rifled a freekick into the top corner on the cusp of half-time (45'+2) to give the hosts the lead.

Dial managed to equalise just eight minutes after the break when Norman curled a pin-point shot over Matt Gregg from 30 yards to put the visitors back on level terms.

Daniel Cenzano came close to giving The Dial the lead five minutes later, but it was Infinity who managed to regain the advantage from a great solo-effort from Willett in the 75th-minute

An error of judgement from Miles gifted Willett with his second of the afternoon two minutes later to make it 3-1 as Dial notably began to tire.

And Willett completed his hat-trick in the 81st-minute to round off the scoring in a match where the result arguably flattered the Sidlesham based side over the 90 minutes. It was the striker's second hat-trick in just four days.

Speaking after the match, Brown said: “I thought we were really good for 65 minutes of the match. However, with so many players out, it was always going to be tough going.

“Fatigue set in and some of the decision making was poor, which ultimately led to us conceding three goals in the second half. Had we been at full strength, I’m sure we would have come away with something.

“We’re not having the rub of the green at the moment, which is compounded by having so many players out. That said, we need to make better decisions, both in and out of possession." he added.

Brown believes his side have probably played two of the best teams, Arundel and Infinity, in the division in the space of just a few days. Despite Dial's slow start to the 2026/27 campaign, he's confident the team will be among the promotion contenders towards the end of the season when he has a full strength squad available.

DIAL SQUARE: Miles, Ewen, Abbey (Brown), Bunyan. Norman, Davis (Federico), Aziz (Cooper), Lawrence, D.Taylor (Oyebola), Cenzano, L.Taylor

MOTM: Ross Ewen