AFC Totton
SOUTHERN LEAGUE DIV.1 SOUTH 2022/23
MATCHDAY 24 - Saturday 18 February 2023
AFC TOTTON 3
Ethan Taylor 42mins; Charlie Davis 55mins; Benny Read 90+3mins
MELKSHAM TOWN 0
THREE GOALS FROM AFC TOTTON, including his first for the club from full-back Benny Read, were enough to hand The Stags a comprehensive home win over a recently resurgent Melksham Town at the Snows Stadium, yesterday (Saturday).
Town came into the game unbeaten in their last four matches under their vastly experienced new Manager Mark Collier. But The Stags had their shooting boots on. Ethan Taylor put them ahead shortly before half-time with a ferocious strike from a narrow angle, and midfielder Charlie Davis took advantage of a rebound from Adam Tomasso’s drive to double the lead in the second half, before a Benny Read rocket put the result beyond all doubt three minutes into stoppage time. Centre-forward Scott Rendell was involved in all three goals, channelling his inner-Teddy Sheringham to create shooting opportunities for his teammates that yielded both a victory for The Stags and the Man of the Match award for the big No.9.
Despite Jordan Ragguette’s red card during the 3-1 victory at Exmouth Town on Wednesday night, Jimmy Ball named an unchanged side with the full-back’s suspension not due to take effect until The Stags return to Devon next weekend to take on Willand Rovers. The only change to the 16-man squad was the return of Matty Burrows to the substitutes’ bench, in place of Freddie Read.
AFC TOTTON
Starting Line-Up
1. Lewis NOICE
2. Benny READ
3. Jordan RAGGUETTE
4. Mike CARTER (Capt.)
5. Charlie KENNEDY
6. Luke HALLETT
7. Adam TOMASSO
8. Charlie DAVIS
9. Scott RENDELL
10. Ethan TAYLOR
11. Tommy WRIGHT
Substitutes
14. Conor WHITELEY
15. Ben JEFFORD
16. Marcus DAY
17. Matty BURROWS
18. Jack MASTERTON
Just as the cold afternoon was flirting with the idea of rain, Melksham Town got the match underway in their home kit of bright yellow shirts, with black shorts and socks. Totton were the first to threaten in the third minute, when Jordan Ragguette got forward from left-back to send in a cross that Scott Rendell glanced wide with his head. Tommy Wright kept the ball in play on the right flank and centred for Mike Carter, whose shot from 22 yards blazed over the crossbar. Melksham’s first serious foray into the Totton half earned them a free-kick on the left-hand side, which Charlie Kennedy headed away from just behind the penalty spot, in an otherwise uneventful opening 10 minutes.
From close to the right-wing corner flag, full-back Benny Read fizzed in a low cross that exposed the visitors’ defence but neither of the two blue shirts in the middle could get the decisive touch, as the ball flashed invitingly across Melksham’s goalmouth. When Town managed to get the ball down and enjoy a period of possession, in which they spread the play from the right of their defence to the left side of their attack, it was Read whose well-timed sliding tackle put a stop to their progress.
Melksham centre-forward Luke Hopper, helpfully distinctive in his bright pink boots, showed his strength to hold the ball up in the inside-left channel, despite Luke Hallett breathing down his neck. A short lay-off presented Albie Hopkins with the chance to deploy his well-renowned left foot, the winger striking a low shot across goal and narrowly wide of Lewis Noice’s far post.
KENNEDY CAUTIONED: The Stags centre-back had to be careful after picking up an early yellow card in the game against Melksham Town at the Snows Stadium.
Charlie Kennedy conceded a free-kick on 20 minutes for grabbing back a Melksham forward, who was trying to race in behind the Totton centre-back to latch onto a high ball through the middle. Yellow shirts surrounded the Referee, claiming that it was a “last man” situation deserving of an instant dismissal, but the man in charge opted to show a yellow card. From the free-kick, about 40 yards out, a presumably practiced short routine broke down in almost comedic circumstances. In a stuttered attempt to play a short pass, it wasn’t clear whether the player over the ball had touched it or not. Ethan Taylor raced in to nip the ball away without any interjection from the Referee, leaving the Totton winger to race forward with Tommy Wright and Scott Rendell joining him on the counter-attack, while Melksham players strained to get back and defend. But an offside flag saved Melksham’s bacon when Wright strayed too early to receive Taylor’s lay-off to the left.
Taylor was looking lively, following on from his impressive performance at Exmouth in midweek. Adam Tomasso tried to release him down the left wing, but the experienced defender David Thompson came across to put the ball out of play. Then, Taylor was to be found at the other end of the pitch, tracking the Town right-back Jack Carter tightly enough to throttle his attempt to send a cross into the Totton penalty area.
Jordan Ragguette went down injured while tussling for possession just off the corner of the Totton box. The game was stopped for a few minutes while he received treatment, before he was eventually substituted with Ben Jefford coming on.
Rendell headed down Hallett’s long diagonal pass, in search of Taylor, Jaiden Pearce clearing for Town. Rendell got the ball back in similar circumstances shortly after, this time laying it off to tempt Charlie Davis into trying his luck from 30 yards, but his shot faded high and wide of the target.
On the half hour, Mike Carter passed to Davis, who had taken up a position on the left-wing touchline, from where he picked out Ethan Taylor on the near edge of the six-yard box, the winger improvising with an overhead kick that flashed wide of the near post. Then, both sides were guilty of slack play around centre-field, Totton needlessly giving up possession before Melksham gave it back by conceding an unnecessary free-kick. Davis sent the ball high to the right side of the area, where Hallett headed across goal. It was hooked out before Tomasso could connect with his intended volley, but Mike Carter retrieved it outside the box and made his way around the defensive block to get to the left-wing byline, pulling the ball back to behind the penalty spot for Hallett, whose side-foot effort flew over the top.
Kennedy dealt with the threat of Hopper escaping down the right wing by shoving the forward to the ground, for which the Referee gave him a final warning and awarded the visitors a free-kick. Hopkins sent in a left-footed in-swinger, which Noice came out to claim before anyone in yellow could steer it towards his goal.
A momentary lapse in concentration led to Luke Hallett under-hitting his pass back to Lewis Noice, forcing the goalkeeper to race out from this goal and kick the ball against Hopkins, causing it to rebound out for a throw-in on the far side. Hallett raised his hand to his keeper to acknowledge the error.
Jefford played the ball ahead of Taylor on the left wing. Jack Carter came across to make a timely interception. Then, with Melksham passing the ball amongst their defenders and midfielders, Totton began to up the tempo of their pressing game, with Charlie Davis in particular charging around with all the energy of a Golden Labrador to unsettle the player in possession, eventually forcing a mistake from George Plank that allowed Read to take the ball away and Totton to settle into their usual routine of bossing the ball about the pitch.
Hopper then broke the offside trap to race onto Ralph Graham’s pass, launching an attack down the Melksham right wing. As Totton defenders got themselves back to surround him and block his forward progress, Hopper checked inside and squared the ball towards the penalty spot, where Adam Tomasso was able to make an important block and remove the danger for the home side.
SWEET 16: Ethan Taylor's rasping opener three minutes before half-time was his 16th goal in all competitions in 2022/23.
And within a few minutes, The Stags were in front. Hallett received the ball near the halfway line, on the Totton right. His high, cross-field pass to the left corner of the Melksham penalty area was headed down into the inside-left channel by Rendell, where Ethan TAYLOR adjusted his stride before striking an unstoppable left-footed arrow into the far top corner of McIntosh Boyd’s net. It was a goal of real quality that had the Totton fans applauding its artistry, as much as the fact that it put their team one goal up.
A neat turn by Graham enabled him to escape the attentions of two Totton players in midfield, before spreading the play to send Jack Carter on a forward foray to the right-wing byline. The full-back’s cross dropped over Benny Read on the far side, but Jay Malshanskyj appeared to lose his bearings and steered his header well wide of the post.
Charlie Davis did well to keep the ball in play high up on the Totton right-wing, just before the half-time break. He pulled it back to the edge of the area where Adam Tomasso arrived to attempt a side-foot finish, but his effort ballooned over the netting behind the goal and into the rough alongside the pathway that leads to Testwood Lakes.
HALF-TIME
AFC TOTTON 1
MELKSHAM TOWN 0
The Stags started the second half, although they quickly conceded possession and were grateful for an offside flag on the far side from the Wessex Heartbeat Stand putting paid to a dangerous diagonal pass that briefly had the visitors in on goal on their left side.
Rendell slipped a pass through to Taylor inside the crowded Melksham penalty area. Taylor tried to tee-up Davis for a shot, but Pearce stabbed the ball away. Then, Melksham had a sustained period of possession around the Totton penalty area that required several tackles and blocks to keep them at bay. First, Aaron Witchell’s cross from the right wing was only glanced by the head of Malshanskyj, leaving Plank to regather the ball on the left wing. He played it back into the middle where two shots in quick succession were blocked by blue shirts, one of them prompting optimistic appeals for a hand-ball against Hallett. Tomasso came out of the box to try and see off the danger, but ended up pulling down Town skipper Samuel Hendy just outside the box to concede a free-kick about 20 yards out in a central position. Hopkins went for goal with a left-footed shot, which Noice saved with a sharp dive to his left-hand side, grabbing the ball at the second attempt as it popped up off his chest, before Malshanskyj or Hopper could get to it.
Tomasso’s blocking of another Hopkins attempt from just outside the Totton box caused the ball to rebound out to Tommy Wright on the right-hand side. He wriggled away from an opponent who wanted to wrestle, before advancing across the halfway line and feeding the run of Ethan Taylor into space through the inside-left. Taylor runs with a straight back and his head up, so it was no surprise that he was well aware of the good position taken up by Scott Rendell on the right of the penalty area. The winger clipped a glorious cross over the last defender and onto the forehead of the Sunburnt Assassin, who headed the ball down and on target, the goalkeeper Boyd doing brilliantly to get across and read the bounce to parry beyond his right-hand post and out for a corner. Charlie Davis took it, sending in a curling, dipping cross that skimmed the top of Kennedy’s head before the defender behind him punted for yardage.
A deft flick on by Wright had Taylor chasing the ball to the right-wing byline, where Thompson put his body in the way to shepherd the ball out of play. As Melksham came forward on 54 minutes, Tomasso did well to get his foot in close to the centre-circle and force the ball back into Totton possession on the right flank. Read worked the ball infield again to Rendell, with Taylor bursting into open space on the left-hand side. Rendell opted for a short lay-off to Tomasso, who was following the play forward. With defenders backing off, Tomasso received the ball about 22 yards out, right of the D, and the combative midfielder gave the Totton fans imploring him to “shoot!” just what they wanted, driving a low effort into the centre of the goal that proved too hot for McIntosh Boyd to handle. The ball bounced off the Melksham keeper and, before he could recover it, Charlie DAVIS was there to gratefully pick up the pieces and smash the ball into the back of the net for his second AFC Totton goal since joining the club in November.
CHARLIE SAYS...: Midfielder Charlies Davis followed up on an Adam Tomasso shot to convert his second goal for the club in the Southern League Div.1 South match against Melksham Town.
Melksham tried to hit straight back, with a hooked pass down the middle of the pitch that had Hopper and Kennedy tying each other up in a bundle of limbs, sending them both crashing to the ground while Noice came out to claim the ball. The Referee saw nothing untoward in the challenge and allowed play to continue. Then, Pearce went through the back of Rendell, as they competed for an aerial ball. Davis took the free-kick and aimed it towards Hallett on the right of all the players lined up along the edge of the Melksham box. The spring-heeled central defender headed wide.
Bright play between Read and Wright on the right flank enabled the latter to play a square pass to Taylor, who skipped wide of his marker to make an angle for a low shot towards the far bottom corner. Boyd got down quickly to save, and the keeper was alert enough to then block Rendell’s follow-up as the rangy centre-forward tried to slide in and divert the rebound over the goal line.
Melksham attacked down their right wing. Hopkins worked his way into the corner of the penalty area and then let fly with a firm effort on his left foot, driving the ball straight into the body of the well-positioned Lewis Noice at the near post.
A short period of sloppy Totton play almost invited their visitors back into the game. A misdirected pass out of defence presented the ball to Malshankskyj, but the Melksham No.10 rushed his shot and dragged it wide of the left-hand post from about 25 yards. Then, Tomasso tried to spread the play out to Benny Read from the middle of the pitch but under-hit his pass, allowing the substitute wearing the No.12 shirt for Melksham to steal the ball near the centre-circle and advance into the Totton half, only for Luke Hallett to step into his path and take it back for the home side. According to the Southern League’s website and the team sheet on the day, Melksham’s No.12 was Sayeed Ibrahim. Sayeed’s photograph is featured in the Melksham pages of the AFC Totton Official Matchday Programme; the player in the No.12 shirt definitely wasn’t him. It may have been Alex Henshall.
MAN OF THE MATCH: Scott Rendell earned the accolade for an unselfish performance that demonstrated his vast experience of leading the line as a traditional No.9.
Ben Jefford exchanged passes with Taylor to advance to the left-wing byline, but his cross looped over the crossbar as he came under pressure from a defender. Then on 70 minutes, Charlie Davis came off to be replaced by Jack Masterton. Scott Rendell and Tommy Wright pressed the Melksham defence hard into their own left-back area, preventing them from playing the ball out or clearing it long. Benny Read darted in to nick the ball on the edge of Town’s area, to the right of the D, but he didn’t appear to recognise that he had an early shooting opportunity, opting to try and play Wright in at the byline, instead. Wright didn’t read it and the pass was too strong, anyway.
The Melksham No.12 (who I believe to have been Alex Henshall), got away from Read to attack the left-wing byline at the other end and cross. Kennedy hooked it to the edge of the area, with Hallett following the ball out to block the follow-up shot, deflecting it wide for a corner on the Melksham left. A short corner gave Henshall the chance to cross, but he overhit it and the danger passed for Totton.
In the 76th minute, Jimmy Ball made his third and final substitution by sending on Conor Whiteley for Tommy Wright. The match was slowly grinding to a full stop, with Melksham unable to lay a telling glove on the home side who were content to keep possession and run down the clock, with just the occasional attempt to add further to their goal tally.
Tomasso sustained a painful whack on his foot, though it was somewhat self-inflicted as he cleared the ball from an opponent’s toe from inside the centre-circle and caught the underside of the player’s foot on the follow-through. Jaiden Pearce headed the ball out for a corner on the Totton right wing, stretching to prevent the ball dropping in behind him to let Taylor have a run on goal. Jack Masterton took the corner, bending his cross towards the near post where Hallett managed to get his head on the ball despite being buffeted by defenders both in front and behind him. His effort took a deflection and hit the side-netting behind the near post for another corner. This time, Melksham managed to clear Masterton’s right-footed cross, and as they tried to launch a counter-attack, Mike Carter committed a foul to earn his customary yellow card.
Albie Hopkins took up a dangerous position on the left-hand side for Melksham, taking on Read before pulling the ball back beyond the penalty spot for Henshall, whose shot took a deflection off Hallett and looped wide of the left-hand post with Noice only able to watch it. When the ball came in from the corner, it was knocked out to the D on the edge of the box where Taylor poked the ball away before Hendy could shoot, and then launched the ball upfield. Melksham came forward again through the middle, Hopper played a short pass to Ralph Graham at inside-right with a clear sight of goal. He drove in a low, angled shot that Lewis Noice repelled with his feet to maintain his clean sheet.
George Plank, who was wearing the No.18 shirt despite having started the game, was shown a yellow card for taking out Conor Whiteley as he tried to run onto a high ball straight down the middle of the pitch. Totton didn’t capitalise but when Melksham regained possession, they struggled to find the telling pass to open up the home defence. A foul by Ben Jefford near the halfway line gave them the chance to take a quick free-kick, to try and exploit the gap that Jefford had temporarily vacated at left-back. But Taylor read their intentions and scampered back to put the ball out for a throw-in before they could take advantage. Jefford slotted into the centre of defence, where he dismantled Melksham’s next attempt to build an attack with a timely intervention about 20 yards from the Totton goal.
Four minutes of stoppage time were indicated by the match officials, signalling to Totton that they just needed to manage the game to its conclusion. Whiteley and Masterton snapped at David Thompson’s heels to prevent him clearing the ball from the visitors’ defensive line, earning a throw-in for their efforts. When Town tried to break out of their own half, Mike Carter threw his head in to charge the ball down and a short pass from Rendell found Taylor inside the box, where he was surrounded by yellow shirts.
UNSTOPPABLE: A late Benny Read exocet rounded off a comprehensive AFC Totton victory.
Just as it seemed the game was going to peter out as a routine two-nil, Totton finished with a late flourish. They were passing the ball from left to right with all but one of the Melksham players dropping back into their own half. Read received possession in space near the right-wing touchline and played a short pass forward to Whiteley who fed it infield to Rendell, the big centre-forward having dropped into the space between defenders and midfielders to give himself space in which to work. Read had continued moving forward and received Rendell’s square pass at the edge of the Melksham penalty area, to the right of the D. With a clear view of the Melksham goal before him, Benny READ fired a rocket of a shot that scorched past the goalkeeper’s flailing right arm to fly high into the net. It was the full-back’s first goal for AFC Totton since his arrival, initially on loan, from Havant & Waterlooville. It also marked the 10th occasion this season that AFC Totton have won a Southern League Div.1 South match by scoring three goals or more.
The final whistle followed soon after, prompting an enthusiastic reaction from the home supporters as the players made their way off the pitch.
After the match, AFC Totton manager Jimmy Ball (pictured above, right) said:
“Melksham Town are a good side. I’ve watched them play a couple of times since the new manager has been there, and they have some dangerous players. They’ve been in decent form lately, too, so it could have been a tricky one. But my players have turned in another thoroughly professional performance. They’ve done everything we’ve asked of them over the course of the week, which included that long away trip to Exmouth on Wednesday, and they come out again today as deserved winners.
“We had a chance to score very early in the game, and maybe should have, but that aside it was always going to be cagey. They play a similar style to us, but we grew into the game better and when the chances came, we took them. In some games this season, a shot like Ethan Taylor’s opening goal pulls a Gordon Banks-style save out of the opposition goalkeeper. But we found the back of the net today with three excellent goals, that show we have goals throughout the whole team. You can’t always expect the big guy up front to do all the scoring, so it’s pleasing that our midfielders and defenders are weighing in with some of their own, as well.
“I was thrilled to see Benny Read get his first goal for the club. He’s a player who just keeps getting better and better. He never drops his standards, so it was pleasing to see him get that reward. Our new signing Marcus Day didn’t feature today but he’s another lively threat capable of causing teams problems, like he did in both games when he played against us for Bristol Manor Farm this season.
“We face Alresford Town on Thursday in the Southampton Senior Cup, just two days before we go to Willand Rovers away in the league. So, I am going to have to shuffle the pack to give some players a rest and to get others up to match fitness. We will certainly take Thursday’s game seriously and do our best to win and progress in the competition, but we have to be realistic and responsible with the players. We had two come off with knocks today and there are one or two others who might have featured on Thursday who won’t be able to, either because they’re injured our cup-tied. We’ll still be putting out a strong side, though, and I’m looking forward to it.”
Latest Southern League Div.1 South league table
View AFC Totton’s fixture list for the 2022/23 season
By Ben Rochey-Adams
Images courtesy of Craig Hobbs Photography
