AFC Totton
By Josh Cole
The highest ever game of football that AFC Totton have played ended in a 2-3 win away from home on opening day!
After a long journey to Kent, that didn’t seem to bother the lads as they came out flying in the first half putting on a real display.
In the 12th minute we took the lead after great play down the right-flank from Ralph Vigrass, as he skinned his man and dug the cross out finding Tyler Cordner at the back-post.
The big centre-back calmly brought the ball down and laid it off to Christos Batzelis and he wrapped his foot around the ball which flew in at the near-post!
The Stags continued to outwork their opponents and were probing for a second and it nearly came in the 21st minute.
Vigrass had his left foot shot blocked but the ball ricochet to Scott Rendell who just fired wide from the edge of the box.
On 28 minutes this saw Totton get their very well deserved second, and it was a corker!
Ryan Gosney kicked the ball long turning defence into attack, the ball was worked out to Vigrass who dug a cross out to the back-post.
It was headed away by a Dover player to the edge where the on-rushing Brandon Haunstrup timed his shot to perfection and it curled into the top corner, a sweet strike from the number three!
As the first half went on, The Stags continued on the front foot and every time Dover tried to get something going there was always three Blue shirts around them, a testament to the work ethic of every player out on the pitch.
After terrorising the fullback for the entire first half, Ralph Vigrass put his name on the scoresheet, but it was gifted to him by a horrific mishap between defender and goalie which allowed Vigrass an empty net to fire home!
When the first half came to a close AFC Totton had a well deserved three-goal advantage, domination from minute one!
The second half did become trickier with Dover throwing everything at it to try and make a respectable scoreline for their standards, but it was still Totton on the front foot.
Batzelis was causing all sorts of problems for that Whites defence and in the 67th minute he ran from the left to the edge of the box, his shot came back off a Dover defender and he played the ball to Luke Bennett on the right-hand side of the box, but he fired high and wide.
Against the run of play, Dover got one back through Goerge Nikaj after newly substituted Francis Mampolo got out of good pressure by the corner flag and picked out Nikaj on the edge of the six-yard box and he tapped home.
More subs came for the stags and despite the crowd roaring the home side on, Dover struggled to finish in the good area they found themselves in.
As the clock ticked past 90 minutes, seven more were added and Dover were on the front foot…
The third minute of the allotted seven Dover got a second, Nikaj again with another relatively open net to put worry around the Stags fanbase.
A last gasp chance came in the 96th minute as a deep cross found Sheriff and his looping header looked destined for the goal, but it landed on the roof of the net.
And that would be the last chance of the game as the full-time whistle blew giving Totton all three points in their first ever game in the Enterprise National League South!
