IT’S a world away from the Holloway Road and Highbury, Hornsey Road and Ashburton Grove, but if you’re looking for a wonderfully welcoming atmosphere amid a convivial group of loyal Gooners then look no further than Dial Square.

Set in unprepossessing Chertsey, to be precise, with a twist of rollercoasters from nearby Thorpe Park visible from behind the Eden Gate End, and its low corrugated roof, Dial Square is a haven for friendship and bonhomie.

The club formed by Arsenal supporters, for supporters back in 2020, is a humble labour of love that is rapidly rising through the non-league ranks, fuelled by an inspiring set of volunteers and those who care about The Dial, as they call it.

While initially the club’s origins may have had roots in a form of protest against the soulless mammon of the Premier League, in the wake of such teams as FC United and Salford City, and their core support feeling alienated from Manchester United, the situation post-Covid at The Dial is far more about organically growing a club, which in truth attracts all football fans, not just Arsenal, who of course, happen to be in the majority.

Tony Hurley, the club’s respected chairman, shares the club’s plans over a pre-match pint outside the clubhouse.

Successful businessman Hurley, who is also a passionate, long-term Arsenal season ticketholder, says: “While it’s true that many of our supporters are Arsenal fans, we welcome all football fans. Our long-term plan is to climb the non-league pyramid, and to ultimately have our own ground. It is still a long way from coming to fruition, but we are making small steps in terms of engaging with the community and local businesspeople in order to one day hopefully achieve that aim.”

Hurley adds: “That hope is supplemented with the goal to achieve widespread fan-ownership, to be self-funded, and become a beacon for the communities it serves.”

To that worthy goal, the club now have a chance to rise to Step 6, a phenomenal rise considering they started on park pitches a mere five years ago. With tight budgets, to help facilitate that aim, the club play at Alwyns Lane, home of Chertsey Town, hence the nearby thrills and spills of Thorpe Park.

Yet it is footballing thrills and spills that are powering The Dial with long-term plans to source a permanent home ground, and develop Dial Square into a fan-owned National League club, ensuring that football is accessible and enjoyed by all.

Dial Square v Battersea Ironsides

While Alwyns Lane may offer a bucolic setting, with its evocative tree lined, well-apportioned, low-roofed stadium, with both sides battling for promotion, as hoped, the fare on the pitch was far fiercer.

With fans clicking through the reassuring clanking grind of the Alwyns Lane iron turnstiles — worth the eminently reasonable £5 entrance fee alone in order to squeeze through such football heritage — you are welcomed with open arms in the clubhouse, as is every visitor to these parts.

The match kicks off at 2pm, with hefty 50-50 challenges the order of the day, as strangely satisfying as rare moments of skill, as both teams compete with every fibre of their being, where defenders clear their lines and the ball hits what looks to be a collection of tall pine trees along the touchline.

Alas, from an Arsenal point of view — sorry, from a Dial Square point of view — the visitors went ahead early on, scoring at the end where a large Dial Square flag to the right of the goal, reads: “By the fans for the fans.”

In an opening half full of perspiration, if not inspiration, the visitors double their lead before the break, through a neat finish from Ironsides’ bustling striker, low past Dial keeper, as a fan clad resplendently in the latest Arsenal leisurewear heads to the bar.

As the referee blows for the interval, and walks swiftly in the direction of a rusting metal gate that allows access to the changing rooms, flanked by a linesman wearing glasses, with hair at his shoulders, and a slight paunch it has to be said, the club’s popular jack of all trades, Dave Nathan, helps one of the team to hobble off.

The player is the club’s captain, Will Neville, who appears to have a painful knee injury, as pals in the crowd shout playful things at Nathan, rather than the stricken Dial player — as would you expect from a club where everyone is firm friends.

(It later transpires Neville suffered a grade 2 MCL tear, putting him out of action for at least three months.)

Above, noisy low aircraft head towards nearby Heathrow Airport, supplemented by faint playful screams from those riding Thorpe Park’s looping rollercoaster nearby.

I speak to Matthew Brewer, who oversees the club’s excellent live-stream service. Son of club secretary Marc Brewer, Matthew is a Barcelona and Arsenal fan, who has been understandably delighted about Mikel Arteta’s side’s dismantling of Real Madrid foes in the night Bernabeu. A reminder of the lingua franca that bonds the majority of supporters here, namely Arsenal FC.

During the break, I notice a man in a waistcoat and shorts with a well-behaved jack russell called Pickle sat a few rows from me in the main stand, or, to be fair, the only stand. Next to me, a man emerges with a mug of tea. Not a plastic or paper cup, but a china mug.

It’s such beguilingly authentic touches that remind you that the Premier League is a world away.

Which is exactly the point of Dial Square.

Second half

Amid the maelstrom of unflinching, fervent commitment from both sides, The Dial pull a goal back through a superb strike from substitute Charlie Marshall, a sweetly taken shot that flies past the keeper to make the net bulge, reducing the deficit to 2-1.

Cries of “keep going lads,” ring out, as the home support encourage their team forward. Bustling, burly No 11 Dan Cenzano drills in a low shot that the keeper can only parry. It’s up for grabs as the clock ticks down, but Dial colleagues simply can’t reach the ball in time, and the spill is cleared.

A late contretemps sees Dial forward Marshall, and a defender booked for a spot of good old-fashioned argy-bargy, but it is instructive no other player joins in. No floundering histrionics or playing to the crowd here, it is good to report. A voice behind me in the stand says with firm common sense: “No good arguing about it, the ref ain’t going to change his mind.”

Less happily, from the home support’s point of view, is the third goal the visitors score late on, after sweeping down the flank and into the box, before a neat finish from their No 9, David Bonsu, low into the far corner.

Despite the Battersea keeper diving full length to keep out a late Dial effort, prior to big centre half Matthew Bunyan squeezing the ball into the net, to set up a fierce final few minutes, which includes an excellent save from the home keeper Ross Jefferies, the score finishes 3-2 to Battersea, in a full-blooded game played with utter commitment — but with resounding respect between the teams, officials and fans.

I speak with the engaging Nathan who emerges after checking on the player he helped hobble off at half time.

Nathan is another passionate Gooner, as well as the popular Dial man responsible for the large flag behind the goal, that incorporates the Arsenal cannon and a remembrance poppy. Nathan underlines with emphasis: “It’s not a case of ‘and/or’ with The Arsenal and Dial Square. You can do both. I am still an Arsenal fan, who is also a Dial Square fan. It’s not one or the other.”

Nathan, who can trace his Arsenal antecedents back four loyal generations to his great-granddad, Wally Dale, who was groundsman at Highbury back in the 1920s, and whose granddad Captain Eric Nathan led his unit on Gold Beach during the D-Day landings, adds: “You can support The Arsenal and the Dial.”

Arsenal fan Spencer Honniball, who regularly travels with his mate Roger all the way from north London to Chertsey to support the Dial, adds: “The welcome you get from everyone here is great. I’d urge all Arsenal fans to visit. There’s a real sense of community here.”

And it’s true. Dial Square is a place where you can forget the relentlessly vapid noise surrounding Premier League transfer fees rising to hundreds of millions of pounds, where utterly inaccessible footballers are now on par with rock stars, and where anodyne wall-to-wall coverage of the top level of the game is now as gruelling as it is invariably underwhelming.

This is where The Dial excels.

For amid a world searching for authenticity, you can find it in spades near the M25 and an amusement park, at a place that offers genuine thrills and spills, peopled by humble, good-natured football fans, who simply care passionately about our game, powering a labour of love that will hopefully progress still further.

As Nathan says: “I’ll also be an Arsenal man. But The Dial is also special.”