AFC Totton
Image Courtesy of Harvey Gerring
LINTON'S DOUBLE SEES OFF PORTCHY
PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY: AFC TOTTON 3-1 AFC PORTCHESTER
By Sean McGlead
AFC Portchester were the next pre-season opponents for Jimmy Ball’s Stags at the Snows Stadium this evening.
The AFC Totton line up for this game was……..Gosney, Rose, Hallett, Magri, Haunstrup,Batzelis, Carter, Hodson, Tanner, Ward, Lee SUBS Evans, Linton Oastler, Bennett, Keita, Andrews, Trialist A, Trialist B, Trialist C, Trialist D.
Totton got an early feel of the ball knocking it around well and in the 4th minute a left - wing cross ended with Declan Rose shooting over the bar. The Stags then earned themselves their 1st corner of the evening, when the ball arrived in the box it was partially cleared by a Portchester defender and Christie Ward sliced an effort towards goal and it was easily cleared by the Portchy defence.
The Stags were playing some nice football at times and a nice move ended with Lee Hodson firing over the bar on 8 minutes. Hodson then picked up a knock and he had to be replaced by one of the trialists on the bench.
Totton were dominating proceedings and once again, they forced a corner out on the right, that corner was headed over his own crossbar by the Portchy No 4. The next corner was cleared by a Portchester defence.
Another corner was earned on the right when the trialist deflected shot couldn’t be prevented from going out by former Stags keeper Steve Mowthorpe. That corner came to nothing, but very soon afterwards Tony Lee tried a shot that took a heavy deflection before the ball trickled easily to Steve Mowthorpe.
Steve Mowthorpe has put on a little timber since leaving the Stags in 2016 and he was taking some good-natured stick from some of the fans on Mally’s terrace.
There was more good interplay down the Stags right and a cross came in from Declan Rose and Tony Lee got to it, but a quick thinking Portchy defender was in very quickly to block Lee’s attempted effort on goal.
At the halfway point of the half Portchester finally had the chance to try and put the Stags defence under a bit of pressure after they were awarded a free kick in the centre circle. The kick was launched into the Totton area, and it went out for a corner, the corner arrived in the box and their No 4 connected to it, but it was deflected out for another corner which the Stags dealt with.
Craig Tanner was showing glimpses of his quality, and it was he, who tried a low shot, which was meat & drink for Steve Mowthorpe.
There was yet more promising interplay by the Stags that ended with Christie Ward dragging a shot wide on the half hour mark.
Just before half time a cross from the Totton left resulted in the trialist putting an effort wide. Then after all of their 1st half dominance Captain Michael CARTER tried a shot from around the edge of the box that hit the underside of the Portchy crossbar, before the ball dropped behind the goal line. The ball came bouncing out but, Fortunately, the linesman was alert and saw the ball had indeed crossed the line, So the Stags went in at the break a goal to the good.
Half-time.
As expected, there was changes at the break, one of those changes was Malachi Linton and he was quickly involved, putting a dangerous looking ball into the area, which was cut out by a Portchy defender. Then Christie Ward had a chance 8-yards out that he put over the bar. The Stags then put together a really-nice move that saw the impressive Tanner put a ball through to LINTON and he slid the ball past Mowthorpe and it was 2-0 to the Stags.
There was another Totton chance that almost resulted in a 3rd goal when Luke Bennett pulled a ball back for the livewire Linton and the former Ipswich forward rattled a shot against the post!
A lapse at the back let Portchester back into the game, the defensive slip saw a low ball come in from the right, and the ball was buried by former Stag Alfie Stanley.
Jimmy Ball then made more substitutions, including more trialists along with Will Keita and Dyland Andrews.
The Stags continued to dominate for the most part and that mightily impressive LINTON scored a 3rd Totton goal after picking up a ball and steaming towards goal and as he entered the Portchester area from the right, he finished superbly by firing wide of Mowthorpe, sending the ball into the far corner of the net.
FULL TIME: AFC TOTTON 3 AFC PORTCHESTER 1
The Stags put in a decent display this evening against a side who are never easy to beat. They are newly promoted to the Isthmian South Central Division, so they were never going to be pushovers, even in Pre-Season. I saw more decent Totton performances out there from several players, but without question Malachi Linton was the brightest light of all, he came on at the break and he gave Portchester a bucket load of problems. He is quick, and direct and he also has an eye for goal! In truth he frightened AFC Portchester to death. Linton is certainly going to be exciting for the AFC Totton fans to watch this season. Christos Batzelis was very good as was Craig Tanner, Declan Rose and Brandon Haunstrup to mention a few.
