It was Dial's heaviest defeat since losing 6-2 away at Laleham & Kempton in the Guilford & Woking Alliance League on 18 September 2021, and one that boss Steve Brown doesn't want to see repeated.

Despite the notable absence of influential winger Jordan Carter (injured) and captain Will Neville (unavailable) from the line-up, there was nothing to suggest that Dial would come up short against their south London opponents.

In a bid to shore up the defence, Brown recalled experienced central defender Adam Sewell for his first match since December, with Aidan Doran also returning to the fold after recovering from a slight ligament strain.

However, it was the hosts who started on the front foot, with a last-ditch tackle from James Vass denying Harrison Deacon a clear goalscoring opportunity, before Andy Rider acrobatically tipped over Joe Cheeseman’s curling effort inside the opening 10 minutes.

At the other end, Louie Rogers’ shot-on-the-turn was cleared off the line after a good cut-back from Harry Rice on the byline.

And Dial were further frustrated when Rice’s timely lob over Daniel McKerracher bounced three feet from the goal-line and over the bar midway through the first half.

Rider then raced out to thwart Mason Reynolds on the half-hour mark, before Charlie Marshall failed to capitalise on McKerracher’s poor clearance a minute later.

But it was the south Londoners that opened the scoring when Rider could only palm Deacon’s low shot into the path of Joe Cheeseman, who slotted home from an acute angle in the 36th-minute.

The hosts almost doubled their lead five minutes later when Rider was again forced to tip away Deacon’s pin-point effort.

The turbulence didn’t let-up after the interval, with Rider denying Deacon’s header just three minutes after the restart.

Although, Dial arguably had good reason to feel aggrieved for not being awarded a penalty shortly after when Tom Resch caught Marshall’s leg when he cleared the ball away.

The minor altercation that ensued did little to hamper The Park’s spirits when Cheeseman flicked the ball on for Charlie Wood, who drilled the ball into the far corner to make it 2-0 in the 59th-minute.

With Dial at sixes and sevens, Cheeseman was gifted an easy tap in 90 seconds later to make it 3-0, before poor marking enabled Deacon to toe-poke the ball home from a long throw to complete the rout.

Speaking candidly after the match, Brown blasted his players’ performance, stating: “It was our worst performance of the year. We lacked quality, desire and lost the physical battle.

“Take nothing away from Worcester Park, who deserved to win, but we didn’t help ourselves in any aspect of the game. We now need to right the wrong in our remaining fixtures to get back to winning ways.”

After losing ground in the title race, Dial's attention now firmly rests on finishing above AFC Walcountians to gain promotion to the Combined Counties Football League (step 6 of the National League System).

DIAL SQUARE: Rider, Rogers, Vassell (Cenzano), Phillips, Vass, Sewell (Rose-Davies), Abraham-Barlow, Doran (Lawrence), Rice, Aziz, Marshall (Dembele). Unused sub: Brown.

MotM: n/a