AFC Totton
SOUTHERN LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION SOUTH | Matchday#24
Saturday 20 January 2024 | Snows Stadium, Salisbury Road, Totton | Att: 1,087
TAYLOR MAKES THE DIFFERENCE IN SCRAPPY HOME WIN OVER BORO’
AFC TOTTON 1
Ethan Taylor 60mins
HARROW BOROUGH 0
ETHAN TAYLOR’S SECOND GOAL of the season handed AFC Totton a valuable home win over relegation battlers Harrow Borough at a Snows Stadium that really lived up to its name in close to freezing conditions on Saturday (20 January 2024).
Manager Jimmy Ball named an unchanged side from that which beat high-flying Salisbury at the Raymond McEnhill Stadium last weekend. Benny Read, who was left out of the visit to Wiltshire due to illness, was named among the substitutes, with Matty Burrows - the last-gasp goalscoring hero when these two sides last met at Harrow’s Earlsmead Stadium on the opening day of the season - being rested as he continues his return from a long-term injury lay-off.
AFC TOTTON
Starting Line-Up
1. Lewis NOICE
8. Adam TOMASSO
6. Luke HALLETT
15. Sam MAGRI
3. Jordan RAGGUETTE
7. Joseph OASTLER
5. Charlie KENNEDY
17. Leon MALONEY
18. Joseph TURNER
9. Scott RENDELL (Capt.)
10. Ethan TAYLOR
Substitutes
2. Benny READ
12. Jordan CHIEDOZIE
14. Ben JEFFORD
16. Alfie STANLEY
20. Luke BENNETT
Wearing all-red, Harrow Borough kicked-off, attacking towards the construction site that will soon become an Aldi Supermarket. Totton had barely touched the ball by the time two replacement footballs had been called for due to their predecessors being booted out into Salisbury Road. When Joe Oastler got on the ball for the first time, he swept the ball upfield for Joe Turner to run on to at inside-right. Surrounded by red shirts, he managed to poke the ball towards Ethan Taylor, but he was crowded out before he could get a shot away.
Boro’s first shot in anger was one from distance, which Lewis Noice dealt with comfortably. A foul by Taylor on Ross Oulton gave the visitors a free-kick close to the half-way line. Jordan Ragguette was alive to the ball being played short, tussling with the formidable figure of Excellence Muhemba to disrupt Harrow’s attacking intentions; when they switched tact and tried to deliver the ball directly into the box, Lewis Noice was alert enough to come out and claim the ball in the air before Muhemba could get off the ground.
The match had been given the go-ahead after a late pitch inspection, on a day when four other fixtures in the same division had been postponed. In addition to the near freezing temperature, the players also had to contend with a strong cross-wind that had the flags that adorn on end of the Snows Stadium hard-pressed up against the safety fence while those at the end of the pitch were proudly flapping their colours in the wind.
Sam Magri doubled-up with Ragguette to stop Muhemba in his tracks, as the burly winger tried to progress up the right wing for Harrow. Taylor received possession mid-way inside his own half and set off on a bustling forward run, nonchalantly shrugging off the challenge of Oulton on his way into the left side of the Harrow penalty area. His cross was blocked by a covering defender and the rebound hit Taylor to go out for a goal-kick. The voice of Jimmy Ball could then be heard imploring his players to “get bodies in the box!”
CHARGE!: Jordan Ragguette runs at the Harrow Borough defence.
Ragguette did well to track the flight of the ball over his right shoulder, getting back quickly enough to beat Muhemba to the header at the corner of the Totton box. Lonit Talla went unpunished for a firm shove on Magri, buying himself time and space to instigate an attacking move from a dangerous area, but when Johnny Alloty received his pass close to the penalty spot, he couldn’t weave his way between Luke Hallett and Oastler, who kicked the ball out to touch. James Gurteen, wearing the No.3 shirt for Harrow Borough, comes armed with a long-range throwing ability. Hallett leapt high to partially clear with a glancing header, Adam Tomasso then tidying up in his right-back area.
A long punt by Noice from his own six-yard box engaged Scott Rendell in an aerial battle with his marker, who unceremoniously dumped him to the ground on the half-way line. The Referee allowed play to continue as Ragguette ran no to the loose ball and advanced up the left wing before laying the ball off short to Taylor, whose cross was turned away for a throw-in. Ragguette took it and got the ball back from Taylor, before driving infield across the edge of the Harrow Borough box with red shirts in his wake. He swung his less-favoured right foot at and fired the ball handsomely high and wide of the target.
Ragguette was involved again shortly after, playing a precise pass up the left wing for Turner to collect, before his cross was deflected wide for a corner. However, Maloney and Taylor were not on the same wavelength regarding an attempted short corner, which Alloty anticipated, intercepted and cleared for Harrow Borough.
Taylor was fouled mid-way inside Totton’s half. Magri used the free-kick to release Ragguette on another left-wing foray. After a couple of neat stepovers, his cross was deflected out for a throw, from which Taylor wriggled his way to the byline and fired in a low cross towards the near post, which Boro’ cleared back out to touch. Then, Turner received a pass at the left corner of the Boro’ box with bodies to aim for in the middle, but his high cross flew too high and too long to capitalise on the situation.
Neat footwork on the right flank enabled Maloney to dance between two defenders and put Oastler in a position to cross to the far post from close to the corner flag. Taylor headed back across goal for Turner, who couldn’t get any power behind his header. The ball dropped back to Taylor, who won another corner. Maloney looped a cross over Barsa Mirtahmasebi at the near post and it struck the defender behind him before bouncing narrowly past the post, to the relief of the visitors. Maloney’s next delivery failed to beat the first man.
HEADS UP: Joe Turner competes with his doppelganger for a high ball.
Harrow goalkeeper Tyler Tobin took a free-kick given for an offside mid-way inside his own half of the pitch. Ragguette had to stoop to try and head the ball out at the edge of the Totton area, but he only succeeded in directing the ball towards the penalty spot, where Magri had to scramble back and conceded a corner on the left-hand side. A high in-swinging cross to the far post was met by Reece Yorke, who leapt clear of everyone and headed across goal and wide of the opposite post; A let-off for the home side.
Despite the blustery conditions, both teams were constantly hooking the ball into the air like gridiron teams trying to force their opponents to take a First Down as close as possible to their own end zones. In a rare moment of good football, Ragguette curled a delightful pass into the path of Taylor, who appeared to have broken the offside trap, only to be frustrated by a late flag from the Referee’s Assistant on the far side, as a covering defender added insult to injury with a crunching tackle, which the formerly hot-headed Taylor took in his stride, although he gave away the game’s next free-kick for a tug on Muhemba when the Referee might have played on with Alotty scampering into space down the right wing. Oulton delivered the ball into the Totton penalty area. Tomasso stumbled as he came to the ball; it hit him in the torso, prompting penalty appeals from those in red, which the Referee ignored and Magri cleared.
The most entertaining moment of the first half came when a Charlie Kennedy clearance looped over the AFC Totton dug-out and bonked a poor, unsuspecting supporter on the head as he was walking in the opposite direction, much to the amusement of the nearby Mally’s Corner. Back on the pitch, Ragguette put in a strong tackle to nullify the threat that Muhemba was fixing to pose down Harrow’s right wing.
Defender Harry Seabrook did well to head clear, as Maloney tried to sneak in behind him to make a run at goal. Then, Ragguette and Turner combined to raid down the left wing, but once again, the cross was too high to give anyone in a blue shirt any chance of converting. Oastler retrieved the ball on the opposite flank and played a short one-two with Maloney, before his cross into the six-yard box was headed off Rendell’s brow by Tobin’s right fist.
Harrow signalled their recognition of the threat posed by Ragguette by getting two and three men around him every time he received the ball. Space opened up ahead of him, though, when Kennedy received the ball in the centre-circle and spread the play to the left for Taylor, who advanced it further forward to Turner on the left side of the penalty area. Harrow had defenders back in numbers, so Turner played a square pass to Maloney, who tried to shift the ball on to his right foot and was clattered by a full-blooded tackle before he could take aim at the visitors’ goal, landing in a heap on the cold turf and only gingerly getting back to his feet as Harrow tried to counter, without success.
Magri had to cover behind Ragguette to block a low cross from Muhemba. From the resulting corner, Noice was confidently off his line to catch the ball and then quickly sought to put Turner in at the other with a long kick, but Turner couldn’t shake off his marker.
Gurteen continued to threaten with frequent long throws, but The Stags won the crucial headers to prevent Harrow getting any meaningful shots on Lewis Noice’s goal. A foul by Kennedy close to the left-wing byline gave Oulton an opportunity to deliver quality into the Totton box, but Noice punched the ball away.
A foul by Magri gave Harrow a free-kick about 35 yards out, towards their right-hand side. Oulton floated the ball beyond the penalty spot, dropping towards the edge of the six-yard box, where Reece Yorke ran in unopposed to volley a low shot past Noice and into the back of the net. The Referee’s Assistant raised his flag, so the goal was ruled out for offside. Then, a lapse in concentration from Magri, while passing out from the back, saw Muhemba spring into action to receive a short through-ball at the right-wing byline; Oastler got back in time to block the cross for another corner. Totton cleared the cross and suddenly Turner was able to launch a counter-attack. His marker did enough to hold him up and when Rendell arrived in support, their attempted one-two went awry, shortly before the Referee’s whistle mercifully brought an end to a largely uneventful first half.
HALF-TIME:
AFC TOTTON 0
HARROW BOROUGH 0
Totton kicked-off the second half, with neither side having made any changes to their starting line-ups. The Stags threatened early on when Rendell flicked on Noice’s long kick to try and put Taylor through on goal, but the winger wasn’t ready for it and couldn’t catch up with the ball before it ran out of play.
Boro’ were forced into an early second-half substitution, with Oulton making way for Tyrique Clarke. Totton should have taken the lead shortly after, when Taylor picked up possession mid-way inside the Harrow half with plenty of space available to the left, which Turner and Rendell were both running into. Taylor’s pass put Turner in with only the goalkeeper to beat; he seemed to hesitate a fraction, allowing defender Harry Seabrook to make up ground and force him further wide, before he blasted a shot that Tobin pushed over the crossbar. Maloney took the corner and the ball was nodded out to Tomasso, whose ball back into the box was defended by Harrow.
Lonit Talla brought a save out of Noice from a Boro’ free-kick. Then, Kennedy’s header reached Taylor, who picked out Maloney on the right. He crossed low looking for Rendell, who slide in with defenders either side of him but couldn’t make a meaningful connection on the ball. Fans behind the goal appealed in vain for a penalty, as Harrow cleared their lines.
Tomasso atoned for his own misplaced pass by running back to dispossess Allotty, at the expense of a left-wing corner for Harrow. Totton were asleep to the quickly-taken set-piece, but they managed to scramble the cross into the box away through Hallett.
Clever link-up play between Rendell and Turner almost had Taylor sneaking in behind the defence but the final ball was too long, allowing Tobin to come out and kick clear. Then, a series of heavy challenges from the players of either side saw possession switch hands back-and-forth a couple of times in midfield, with both teams struggling to assert dominance over the other.
Strong centre-forward play by Rendell held Gurteen off long enough to allow Tomasso to scurry down the right flank, towards the byline. His low cross flashed across the face of goal and had to be retrieved on the opposite wing, before Ragguette’s high looping cross flew wide of the right-hand post. Then, Turner got back to help Ragguette defend in the left-back position, as Harrow tried to overload down their right wing.
IN THE GOALS, AGAIN: Ethan Taylor put his recent injury woes behind him to score the winning goal for AFC Totton in the 1-0 home win over Harrow Borough at the Snows Stadium.
Totton took the lead on the hour. Sam Magri won the ball at the left-wing touchline, mid-way inside Totton’s half, and swept it forward to half-way, where Taylor performed a scorpion kick to flick it infield to put Rendell in a foot race with Seabrook. The defender just about got there first, turning away from Rendell to play a short forward pass to a teammate. But he over-hit it and the ball rolled straight to Maloney, who tried to dribble into the centre to line up a shot from 20 yards. Keen to atone for his error, Seabrook slid in with an intercepting tackle but only succeeded in giving the ball to Kennedy, who passed to Rendell, who in turn played Taylor in with three defenders around him close to the penalty spot. Ethan TAYLOR took control of the ball while on turn and, with great composure, slotted the ball under Tobin to put The Stags in front.
Hallett had to block a shot from Allotty. Then, Kennedy had to hack the ball clear when Harrow attacked the left-wing byline and got the ball across Totton’s goal. Taylor latched on to the ball and began to race away on the counter, until Alloty reached out left arm and pulled him back to earn one of this or any other season’s most blatant yellow cards. Maloney’s free-kick was headed away, with Turner working hard to make sure Harrow couldn’t launch a counter-attack.
Seabrook made an important interception to prevent Rendell getting in from Taylor’s flick. Then, a long kick from Lewis Noice caused confusion in the Harrow defence, which Seabrrok resolved by heading out for a right-wing corner. Taylor’s cross was headed out as far as Tomasso, who directed the ball back to Taylor. He shifted the ball to the left to sidestep the defender fronting up to him, then curled a fierce cross-shot into box which Yorke bravely repelled with a strong header.
Joe Oastler was a little unfortunate to receive a yellow card for a foul on Rony Mfinda, close the half-way line, when he won the ball but caught his opponent on the follow through. Then, another long throw from Gurteen was knocked down to the edge of the area, from where Reece Cameron let fly but shot high and wide of the target.
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Leon Maloney tries to sneek in behind the Harrow Borough defence.
Harrow Borough then decided to take a time-out, so their Manager Jordan Berry could issue new tactical instructions to his players, who all came over to the dug-out while he pointed their attentions to a magnetic tactics board. Goalkeeper Tyler Tobin facilitated by pretending to be injured, so the physio could pretend to treat him, while the match officials pretended not to recognise what was really happening.
When play resumed, Taylor broke the offside trap but a poor pass infield gave the ball back to the Harrow defence. Then, Jordan Chiedozie came on in place of Leon Maloney for The Stags.
Another Gurteen throw was well-defended at the near post by Totton. Then, the full-back had to stretch to intercept Turner’s pass in the centre-circle, as Taylor was readying himself to sprint clear into the inside-left channel.
A scuffed clearance from Rendell’s flick-on resulted in a right-wing corner for Totton. Taylor clipped his cross towards the front post, where Hallett came running in and headed powerfully but narrowly over the bar.
Another knock-down by Rendell found Turner, whose attempted through-ball to Chiedozie was intercepted. Ragguette was shown the yellow card, apparently accused of time-wasting over a throw-in. Then, Taylor was fouled virtually on the left corner of the penalty area, as he tried to juggle the ball past a defender. Turner went for a goal with a curling right-footed effort, which Tobin caught in the middle of his goal.
Gurteen took a moment to direct his teammates before sending in his next long throw. Turner headed out and Mfinda picked up possession for the visitors. Tomasso fell over as he tried to close him down, allowing Mfinda to push the ball out to the right. The subsequent cross had to be headed out from under the Totton crossbar by Kennedy, before The Stags cleared at the second attempt.
A spell of pinball football around the Totton penalty area saw two Harrow efforts on goal blocked, before Chiedozie headed out and The Stags were able to counter. After a few short passes in midfield, Chiedozie received the ball again and clipped a pass to Turner in a central position, about 25 yards out. While Taylor made a run to his left, Turner brought the ball down to set himself for a shot, which lacked the power to trouble Tobin.
Tomasso’s tackle on Harrow sub Mack Miskin gave Gurteen another chance to lob the ball into the Totton box. Rendell was back to defend the near post but his header dropped into a dangerous area, prompting a goalmouth scramble that The Stags stood firm against. The ball was knocked out of area and came back again in the air, enabling Noice to jump high and comfortably claim amongst the bodies.
Alfie Stanley came on in place of Joe Turner, with about three minutes of normal time to go. Tobin’s long kick was headed out to the edge of the area, where Talla brought it under control and let fly with a powerful shot that swerved away from the right-hand post and wide, with Noice flying across his goal at full-stretch.
Energetic pressing by Chiedozie enabled him to wrestle possession off Seabrook at the left-wing byline. Seabrook responded by dumping him to the ground, prompting appeals for a Totton penalty; the Referee was well-placed and gave the unversal “no penalty” signal by crossing and uncrossing his arms, somewhat theatrically.
Harrow were now throwing caution the considerable wind blowing across the Snows Stadium. Tobin launched a free-kick from just behind the half-way line into the Totton area. Magri headed away, before Boro’ forced the ball forward, again. Talla was crowded out before he could get his shot away, then Rendell was able to clear into touch.
The Referee came over to the Away dug-out and showed the yellow card to Jordan Berry for something he had said. Tobin went forward to join the attack for Harrow’s next free-kick. It was headed out as far as Tyrique Clarke, who missed his kick. Tobin began to sprint back to his goal but Stanley couldn’t work himself enough room to pull the trigger for what might have resulted in a 60-yard goal.
Stanley then put his team under unnecessary pressure with a loose pass infield from the right flank, which allowed Harrow to sweep the ball forward again and get in behind Ragguette to cross to the near post, where Magri made the crucial interception. Gurteen went over the right touchline to send in another long, looping throw, but it merely arced its way straight into the hands of Lewis Noice, before the full-time whistle confirmed a 1-0 victory for The Stags.
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By Ben Rochey-Adams
Images courtesy of Micheala Cater Photography
