With Field on his way to the Navy for his National Service and Fuller unavailable, the reserve full-back pair, Ford and Silver, were promoted. Gough, a regular with the strollers (3rd team) before the war, with a couple of first team appearances to his credit, was preferred to Morgan, with Head switching to the inside, and the half-back line was shuffled to try Smith at centre-half with Lemmer switching to his natural left-half position and Fennell moving up to right-half, his regular pre-war position.

The experiment paid off, although the visitors played well enough in the first half to suggest they would win easily, their forwards pressing for long periods, but they were well marshalled by the defence and could manage only the solitary goal for their efforts. That goal came after twenty minutes after Gadsden had already hit the base of the post from close in, the same player finding Pratt who drove home past Mortimer.

Immediately after the break the Dons drew level. Richfield's shot forced Turner to save for a corner and when Prett's delivery was headed clear Richfield was there to bang the ball back into the net. Thereafter it seemed there would only be one winner as the home team pressed relentlessly and Ilford were left to the occasional break, easily handled by the defence. Richfield pounced on a mistake from Craymer and ran in to beat Turner for what proved to be the winning goal.