Dial maintained their lead at the top of the Surrey Premier County Football League table after beating Keen Park Rangers 7-3 at Pyrford Cricket Club ground on Saturday (26 Oct).

However, it was anything but plain sailing for The Dial who struggled to get out of first gear for much of the first half, with boss Steve Brown making his thoughts known at the interval.

With a nigh on full-strength side available, James Vass opened the scoring for The Dial on six minutes, followed by another great strike from George Lawrence to give the leaders a two-goal cushion after just 13 minutes.

And just when it looked as though the floodgates would open, Rangers hit back six minutes later from a stupendous half-volley-on-the-turn from Michael Wicherek.

With Dial still in the ascendancy, their pattern of play became notably disjointed as the hosts grew in confidence. It paved the way for Kiyanu Pillay to beat the off-side trap to equalise for Rangers on 38 minutes, resulting in an eerie silence among the travelling fans.

Although the hosts’ celebrations were short-lived when Jordan Carter set up top-scorer Harry Rice to score his eighth goal of the season from close range four minutes later.

Despite leading 3-2, Brown didn’t mince his words at half-time off the back off Dial’s lacklustre performance. The dressing down brought about an upturn in performance, with Charlie Marshall racing through to score Dial’s fourth goal midway through the second half.

Dougal Chudley managed to claw a goal back for Rangers when he latched onto a defensive-splitting pass to slide the ball past Richard Ossai after 73 minutes.

Again, the hosts’ celebrations lasted just four minutes when Rice found himself through on goal to score his second of the afternoon to make it 5-3.

Not to be outdone, substitute Dan Cenzano scored a brilliant solo effort two minutes into stoppage-time to net Dial’s sixth goal, before Carter took advantage of Rangers’ high press to open his account for the season to give Dial a resounding 7-3 victory.

Speaking after the match, Brown said: “I thought we were naïve in the first half. It was a small pitch and we didn’t retain the ball which allowed them back into the game. The players knew that their first half performance wasn’t good enough, and to be fair to them they stepped up in the second half.

“While it’s always good to be top of the league, there’s still plenty of room for improvement. On paper, we won 7-3 and we’ve extended our unbeaten run to eight games, which in many ways you cannot argue. However, we’ve struggled to get out second or third gear for the majority of the games that we’ve played, so I do need to address that,” added Brown.

DIAL SQUARE: Ossai, Rose-Davies (Averiss), Vass (Vassell), Phillips, Sewell (Bicknell), Neville, Carter, Goulter, Rice, Lawrence (Fortune ), Marshall (Cenzano).

Man of the Match: Will Neville