AFC Totton
More league action at the Snows Stadium. Tickets on sale now: afctotton.ticketco.events/uk/en
AFC Totton’s Buildbase FA Trophy 3rd Round defeat at Larkhall Athletic’s distinctive Plain Ham ground the week before Christmas is for many fans of the Club one of the low points of the season, made all the more frustrating by the fact that the Stags had won a league match there just a fortnight earlier.
Few would argue that the Larks were deserved 2-1 winners on the day and their reward was a lucrative trip to Edgeley Park to take on Vanarama National League side Stockport County. That was where their FA Trophy run came to an end with a 0-3 defeat, but it marked the furthest the club has ever gone in the competition and remains a fantastic achievement by the team from Bath in Somerset.
Two key departures followed with captain Mike Baker moving to promotion-chasing Frome Town and 26-year-old midfielder Matt Britton joining Swindon Supermarine in the Southern League Premier South. Meanwhile, midfielder Ben Wych and forward Danny Dodimead have arrived from Weston League Div.1 clubs Welton Rovers and Hengrove Athletic, respectively.
The Larks are in a run of two wins from their last seven matches since our last encounter, which includes an injury-time defeat at resurgent Barnstaple Town courtesy of prolific Barum striker Owen Howe. Two consecutive postponements have disrupted their February schedule but the rest didn’t help them when they hosted Plymouth Parkway last weekend and went down to William Palfrey’s 78th-minute winner.
Having been some people’s dark horses to sneak into the Southern League Div.1 South promotion play-offs for a while, the Larks now appear to be destined for a mid-table finish. But in players such as Alex Lambert and Daniel Demkiv, they have proven goalscorers who can still pose a significant threat on any given matchday.
LARKHALL ATHLETIC: LAST 5 MATCHES – All Competitions
Sat 15 Jan Stockport County A Buildbase FA Trophy, 4th Rnd L 0-3
Wed 29 Jan Lymington Town H Southern League Div.1 South D 1-1
Sat 05 Feb Barnstaple Town A Southern League Div.1 South L 1-2
Sat 12 Feb Willand Rovers H Southern League Div.1 South W 1-0
Sat 26 Feb Plymouth Parkway H Southern League Div.1 South L 0-1
AFC TOTTON vs LARKHALL ATHLETIC – Previous Meetings
There have been 15 meetings between these two sides since the 2014/15 season. Larkhall have the better of the head-to-head record with 7 wins to Totton’s 5, the biggest of which was the 1-6 drubbing the Larks dished out at Testwood Park at the start of the 2016/17 season.
The following season, Totton managed to take all 6 points with a 1-0 away win, thanks to an infamous goal by Nimes Pina, which they followed-up with a 2-0 victory at home courtesy of a rare headed goal by Craig Feeney and a thunderbolt of a free-kick by Tony Lee.
In our previous league meeting this season on Saturday 04 December, Hisham Kasimu got Totton off to a flyer with a goal in the first minute. And the livewire striker added a second moments before half-time. Larkhall got back into the game on 55 minutes when Lewis Waterfield was sent off for a foul inside the penalty area and Dale Evans converted the spot-kick. The 10-men Stags stood firm in the face of a barrage of crosses from the home side and battled all the way to the final whistle to secure the points.
But just a fortnight later, goals by Larkhall’s Daniel Demkiv and Brad Norris cancelled out Kasimu’s 37th-minute opener in the Buildbase FA Trophy 3rd Round tie at Plain Ham, which sent the Larks through to face Stockport County in the following round.
AFC Totton striker Hisham Kasimu takes on the Larkhall Athletic defence during the Buildbase FA Trophy 3rd Round tie at Plain Ham in December 2021.
Written by Ben Rochey-Adams and Malcolm Tombs, Historian
