AFC Totton
SOUTHERN LEAGUE DIV.1 SOUTH 2022/23
MATCHDAY 17 - Monday 26 December 2022
AFC TOTTON 3
Tim Stephenson o.g. 45+5mins; Joe Adams 71mins;
Matty Burrows 88mins
LYMINGTON TOWN 1
Mitchell Speechley-Price 42mins
JIMMY BALL’S AFC TOTTON PUSHED ASIDE THE TURKEY SANDWICHES to come through an often ill-tempered Boxing Day affair at the Snows Stadium against local rivals Lymington Town yesterday, extending their unbeaten run in the Southern League Div.1 South to 14 matches, which now includes six consecutive victories, despite goalkeeper Lewis Noice being taken off at half-time as a precautionary measure after an injury during the first half, and having winger Matty Burrows sent off during the dying embers of the game.
Having shuffled his pack for the Southampton Senior Cup encounter with AFC Stoneham last Tuesday night, The Stags’ boss reverted back to his strongest available starting XI to face the challenge of a recently resurgent Lymington Town who began the season with seven straight defeats before recovering sufficiently to give themselves a realistic chance of fighting for Step 4 survival. Havant & Waterlooville-loanee right-back Benny Read returned to the Totton side while his younger brother Freddie dropped to the bench to make way for skipper Mike Carter in midfield. Charlie Kennedy and Luke Hallett renewed their central defensive partnership, while Charlie Davis, who played at full-back on Tuesday, shifted back into midfield alongside Carter and the Wigan Athletic-loanee Joe Adams, making his first league start for The Stags. Ethan Taylor, Matty Burrows and Scott Rendell all returned in the most advanced positions in Jimmy Ball’s formation.
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. Joe ADAMS
8. Charlie DAVIS
9. Scott RENDELL
10. Ethan TAYLOR
11. Matty BURROWS
Substitutes
14. Ben JEFFORD
15. Jake ADAMS
16. Freddie READ
17. Jack MASTERTON
18. Silvano OBENG
Before the match, the players and fans observed a minute’s silence in honour of Norman Gannaway, a Lymington Town club stalwart, who sadly passed away over Christmas. Both teams wore black armbands as a mark of their respect. As was the case when these two sides met at the same time last year, AFC Totton wore their fluo yellow-and-black away strip, in support of the homelessness charity Shelter’s #NoHomeKit campaign to raise awareness of the plight of homeless people throughout the UK, particularly during the cold winter months.
With the sun perched just above the Salisbury Road stand, like an interloping football fan determined to watch the match without paying the entry fee, The Linnets, in their usual kit of red-and-white stripes, red shorts and red socks got the game underway, with Totton attacking towards the Post Office end. And The Stags came within a whisker of opening the scoring in the first 90 seconds.
Matty Burrows received the ball on the right-wing touchline and charged infield, escaping the clutches of one visiting player before being cynically pulled back by the considerably larger and more cumbersome central defender Tom Andrews. Inexplicably, the Referee chose not to show the yellow card; a decision that would have repercussions throughout the entire match. The free-kick was about 25 yards from goal, in a central position. Charlie Davis and Ethan Taylor took a short one, enabling Taylor to change the angle of approach and float the ball over the defensive line onto the head of Joe Adams seven yards out. The teenager’s header left goalkeeper Amadeusz Skrzyniarz stranded but bounced back off the foot of the left-hand post and away to relative safety for the away side.
OLD STOMPING GROUND: There was a familiar face in goal for Lymington Town in the shape of former AFC Totton goalkeeper Amadeusz Skrzyniarz.
The Polish goalkeeper was one of several ex-AFC Totton players in the Lymington side. Another, Owen Fee, who trained with the club during the summer and began this season with Totton & Eling, almost raced through to connect with a long kick out of defence until Lewis Noice beat him to the ball on the edge of the Totton penalty area.
Totton settled down, with the defenders passing the ball amongst themselves, until Luke Hallett spotted the opportunity to send Burrows away down the right wing. Using the weight of the pass to his advantage, Burrows surged past the left-back Luke Churchill before cutting inside onto his left foot along the edge of the Lymington area. With two defenders trying to block his path, the former Weymouth winger still managed to squeeze his shot past them, though it drifted a short way wide of the far post.
Andrews got away with another shove on Burrows, before an awkward bounce got the better of Benny Read and Jordan Ragguette had to come across to intervene as Lymington threatened to get in behind the Totton defence. Read redeemed himself shortly after, pushing forward for a Totton throw-in on the right touchline, receiving the ball and crossing to the far side where Scott Rendell got above his man, his header floating over the bar.
Fee’s tricky footwork drew a foul from Ragguette, resulting in a Lymington free-kick on the right-hand side, about 25 yards out. Churchill hung the ball high into the penalty area where the commanding figure of Lewis Noice claimed it comfortably, but the visitors thought they had a claim for a penalty as one of their players tumbled to the ground in a coming together with one of the Totton defenders. The Referee saw nothing untoward and allowed play to continue.
Totton countered, playing the ball up to the centre-circle where Burrows pirouetted, in a move worthy of the Bolshoi Ballet, to put enough distance between him and a dumbfounded opponent to pick a pass out to Taylor in space on the left wing. Taylor curled his cross towards the penalty spot where Rendell met it with a diving header, forcing Skrzyniarz into a fine reaction save - the ball fell to the feet of Joe Adams, only for the ex-Stags keeper to pull off a miraculous double-save, denying the boy from Guernsey the chance to open the scoring at the expense of a corner. Davis crossed but a Lymington defender produced a diving header of his own to affect a clearance and give his team the chance to launch a counter-attack, until Carter put a stop to that with a foul midway inside the Lymo half.
In the 13th minute, Mitchell Speechly-Price found a pocket of space on the edge of the Totton area, in the inside-left channel. He shifted the ball to his right foot to squeeze his shot past Hallett but also narrowly wide of the left-hand post, too. Then, Lymington chose to sit back while Totton passed the ball around the pitch for a spell. Hallett switched the play from right-to-left to find Ragguette in space, who sent in an early cross that Rendell stretched to connect with, getting his right foot on it but sending the ball just past the right-hand post.
A head injury to a Lymington player caused a stoppage around the 16th minute, and shortly after play resumed, Speechley-Price tried a speculative long shot that was always rising a long way above the frame of Noice’s goal. Then, Burrows was dispossessed as he tried to dribble through midfield, the ball popping out to Jack Seddon in the right-back slot for Lymington. An early pass up the line put Owen Fee in behind Ragguette, who managed to recover to get goal-side despite Fee working his way infield towards goal, his shot going through Ragguette’s legs and requiring Noice to save with his right foot, the ball spinning up and away sufficiently for recovering defenders to clear.
Lymington were finding ways to trouble the Totton backline and Churchill’s cross from deep on the left-hand side was flicked out for a throw-in on the opposite flank by the head of Charlie Kennedy. From the throw, Lymington worked the ball to the feet of Lewis Waterfield who sent a high curling cross into the penalty area. Once again, Noice was up high to confidently claim the ball, but as he dropped back down to terra firma, Harrison Cable charged in with an unnecessarily robust challenge that left the Totton goalkeeper in considerable pain, prompting a lengthy stoppage while he received treatment from club physio Andrew Hanley. Play was suspended for five minutes while Noice was treated, amid concerned looks on the Totton bench with no recognised goalkeeper among the substitutes; Italian shot-stopper Giulio Girelli, a student at Southampton University, is currently back in Turin with his family for Christmas.
TREATMENT: Stags goalkeeper Lewis Noice received treatment on the pitch following a collision with Lymington Town forward Harrison Cable.
Once Noice had been given the all-clear, play continued with a free-kick that Luke Hallett took on his keeper’s behalf, but Totton chose to pass the ball around and feed it back to Noice to get him back into the rhythm of the game - he appeared, at least, to be able to kick the ball without too much discomfort.
His opposite number Skrzyniarz found himself backpedaling towards his far post when Ragguette slightly miss-hit his cross from the left wing, causing the ball to drop much closer to the Lymington goal than he intended, though ultimately just past the post. Then, a marauding charge from the centre-circle to the right side of the Lymington penalty area by Davis enabled the midfielder to pick out Scott Rendell in the middle, Andrews getting his foot in to divert the ball over his own crossbar before the Sunburnt Assassin could apply the finish.
Ragguette’s superior strength shrugged Fee off the ball when he tried to scamper away down the right wing, much to the verbal annoyance of the Lymington manager Dave Lewis, who remonstrated with the Referee about an alleged push. A left-wing cross from Ragguette shortly after had Seddon and Andrews both heading the ball up rather than out of their area; Ragguette received the ball again but this time his low cross was gathered by Skrzyniarz at the foot of his near post.
With the sun dipping below the threadbare row of trees that adorn the Salisbury Road side of the Snows Stadium, the temperature within the ground noticeably dropped, as had the momentum that Totton’s game had displayed prior to Noice’s injury stoppage. The first yellow card of the afternoon was shown to former AFC Totton midfielder Lewis Waterfield, who did enough to earn a booking with a late challenge on Joe Adams, but might well have then seen red for an over-the-top lunge on Jordan Ragguette within the same move. The same player then attempted a long-range potshot, which sailed harmlessly over the bar.
The deadlock was broken on 42 minutes, when a long ball out of Lymington’s half was not convincingly dealt with by the Totton defence. The ball dropped to the Lymington No.9 with his back to goal, about 22 yards from goal in a position slightly left of centre. Turning onto his right foot, Mitchell SPEECHLEY-PRICE struck a dipping half-volley over Noice’s right shoulder and inside the near post to give Lymington an unlikely lead.
As play resumed, the board was displayed to indicate seven minutes of stoppage time at the end of the first half, and Totton responded like a team in a hurry to draw level before the break, but at times their haste was greater than their speed and inaccurate passes and crosses did more to undermine their attacking moves than the defensive actions of the opposition.
But, four minutes into first-half stoppage time, Burrows was brought down on the right flank, midway inside Lymo territory. Taylor’s high, in-swinging delivery to the far post was headed back across goal by Hallett and then on-target by Rendell; Skrzyniarz dived to his left and pushed the ball out, Burrows latched onto the rebound and tried to fire it high into the net, only for the ball to strike the underside of the crossbar and bounce out before Lymington hacked it away for a corner. Charlie Davis crossed from the left wing corner quadrant, the ball dropping on the edge of the six-yard box where Hallett ran in to head at goal. His effort struck Skrzyniarz on the chest and as it dropped, Andrews tried to boot the ball clear only to smash it directly into his central defensive partner Tim Stephenson standing on the six-yard line; the ball struck him on the upper arm and rebounded over the goal-line for an OWN GOAL. Spare a charitable thought for the Lymington captain who also put one into his own net the first time these two sides met last season, in Totton’s 4-0 win at the Sports Ground last August.
Before the half-time whistle, Totton had the chance to take the lead when Rendell and Taylor combined through the middle to put Ragguette in at inside-left, his drilled cross-shot arrowing a whisker away from the foot of the far post with the hitherto infallible Skrzyniarz scrambling across his goal.
HALF-TIME
AFC TOTTON 1
LYMINGTON TOWN 1
Totton emerged for the second half absent their goalkeeper, Lewis Noice, who was taken out of the action as a precaution following his injury and the lengthy stoppage that followed it. Ethan Taylor, who was thrust between the sticks in the dying minutes of last season’s Southampton Senior Cup semi-final against Winchester City at Sholing’s ground when Noice suffered a broken collarbone, was once again asked to don the gloves, with Silvano Obeng coming off the bench to partner Scott Rendell up front.
The home side controlled the play for the opening period of the second half, although they found their former teammate in the Lymington goal continuing to display good form, particularly when asked to deal with crosses into and around his six-yard box. The visitors managed to get forward in the 49th minute but when the attack broke down, Speechley-Price earned himself a yellow card for tripping Hallett, more out of frustration than malice.
VERSATILITY: Ethan Talyor played as a winger in the first half and as goalkeeper in the second, following the witdrawal of Lewis Noice due to injury.
A chilling, blustery wind swept through the ground, shortly followed by a burst of cold rain that had several fans in the open areas of the Snows Stadium scurrying for cover. Out on the pitch, Cable tried to wind his way through the Totton defence until Carter put his foot in and then drew a foul from the same player. Then, the troublesome Fee managed to encroach on the right side of the Totton area, before he was crowded out by fluorescent yellow shirts.
A pull by Hallett on Speechley-Price gave Lymington the chance to test Totton’s makeshift goalkeeper with a free-kick from 25 yards, but Luke Gray’s shot deflected off a defender and away for a corner on the Lymo right. Ragguette headed the cross away from the near post, then Burrows charged down an attempted follow-up shot from just outside the box.
Joe Adams had to chase back and make a sliding tackle to stop Fee in his tracks, then the midfielder defended well in combination with Kennedy when Ragguette had gone forward and turned back to play a pass that Lewis Waterfield intercepted with a view to exploiting the space vacated by Ragguette at left-back. A skilful turn near half-way enabled Adams to feed Obeng, who spread the play out to the right flank where Benny Read joined in, with Totton players flooding forward into advanced positions. Read ran into the space ahead of him and crossed but Lymington had players back to turn the ball away from danger. Another combination between Adams and Read saw the latter pull the ball back to the 18-yard line where Gray quickly nipped in to clear into touch.
Totton had resumed their possessional dominance. Hallett and Kennedy took it in turns to bring the ball out defence and add to the numbers going forward, but Totton’s crosses were defended well enough to keep the scoreline level. From a corner on the right wing, Davis played the ball short to Read whose high cross was headed over by Rendell, under pressure from his marker. Then, Ethan Taylor took an opportunity to remind everyone that he usually plays on the wing with an impromptu Cruyff Turn inside his penalty area, with an opponent trying to close him down. Tim Stephenson showed Taylor how it’s done by unceremoniously clobbering the ball out of the ground from three yards shy of the touchline, as Totton tried to build a right-wing attack.
Jordan Ragguette came off on the 66 minute mark, to be replaced by Ben Jefford. Then, only a well-timed last-ditch tackle on the edge of the Lymington area prevented Matty Burrows going through the centre. Joe Adams picked up the loose ball and tried to tee up Davis arriving late in the inside-left channel, but Lymo defended for their dear lives and managed to force Totton back, before punting upfield to where Speechley-Price was suddenly able to evade both Kennedy and Hallett to shoot for the bottom-left corner, Taylor flinging himself full-length to produce a save of which any goalkeeper in the Southern League would have been proud, leaving Speechley-Price with his head in his hands as Kennedy protested to the Referee about a push.
Taylor’s save kept Totton level and, on 71 minutes, he was rewarded by the sight of his team taking the lead in the match for the first time. From Hallett’s long ball out of defence, Silvano Obeng leapt high to flick on through the middle, towards the penalty spot where his strike partner Scott Rendell had to stretch out his left leg to bring the ball down, but before he could toe-poke it past Skrzyniarz, Jack Seddon slid in from his left to divert the effort towards the right-hand post; fortunately for The Stags, Joe ADAMS had continued his forward run and was able to sprint away from Andrews to squeeze the loose ball into the empty net before Seddon could fling his body into its path, registering his first goal for AFC Totton.
OFF THE MARK: On loan Wigan Athletic midfielder Joe Adams scored his first AFC Totton goal to give The Stags the lead at home to Lymington Town.
Totton were soon in possession, again. When one attack was held up, Rendell went out to the right wing to combine with Joe Adams an Benny Read, the latter’s cross deflecting off a defender and into the grateful arms of Amadeusz Skrzyniarz. Adams was lucky not to receive a yellow card when the Referee turned a blind eye to him blocking Lymington’s attempted quick free-kick. Then, the Wigan Athletic man combined with Read on the right-hand side, displaying terrific ball skills to sidestep one challenge and cross to the near post area. Rendell flicked the ball on into the centre but Obeng couldn’t get there before Stephenson cleared for Lymington.
It all kicked off with about eight minutes to go when Benny Read fouled Owen Fee to prevent him getting away down the Lymington left. Among a melee of players from both sides, Fee confronted Read and - “punched” is such an ugly word - thrust his hand into the face of Read with some force. The Referee rightly booked Read for the original foul, but Owen Fee escaped without so much as a talking to. His manager, however, was not so fortunate; not content with seeing his midfielder get away with common assault, Dave Lewis took the moment to remonstrate with the Referee and was promptly dismissed from the touchline.
Once everyone remembered they were there to contest a Southern League Div.1 South football match, Luke Gray bent his free-kick into the area. A Lymington player ran under the flightpath of the ball, distracting Taylor enough that he fumbled the catch, the ball hitting him in the chest. Totton hooked the ball away but when it was curled back into the box, Taylor had regathered himself sufficiently to make a clean catch.
Jake Adams stepped off the bench in the 84th minute, replacing Charlie Davis in midfield as Jimmy Ball looked to exploit the spaces Lymington were leaving in defensive areas, as they went in search of an equaliser. The visitors worked the ball infield from the right flank to the middle, where substitute Thomas Man took a touch to set himself, about 30 yards out, and launched a speculative effort that presented a greater threat to passing traffic on the Calmore roundabout than Ethan Taylor’s goal.
With two minutes of regulation time remaining, Totton put the result beyond doubt with a goal from a sweeping counter-attack. Obeng wrestled for possession inside his own half and, outmuscling his opponent, pushed the ball out to Jake Adams on the right, who found his namesake Joe on the advanced edge of the centre-circle. With every AFC Totton fan in the ground imploring him to spot the run of Matty Burrows, who had the freedom of southern England at inside-left, Joe Adams duly obliged by making sure his pass evaded the midfielder trying to close him down to send Burrows clear. Taking the ball in his stride on his right foot, Matty BURROWS advanced to the edge of the penalty area, left of the D with two defenders in futile pursuit, before calmly picking his spot in the far bottom corner beyond the outstretched left arm of Skrzyniarz.
From there on in, the match became a mess of indiscipline from players on both sides, the seeds of destruction having been sown early on when the Referee failed to put his authority on the game by allowing too many deliberate fouls to go unpunished. First, the Lymington left-back Luke Churchill took umbradge at the skilful self-indulgence of Jake Adams on the Totton right-wing touchline, launching a reckless two-footed challenge that had red card written all over it. But Totton’s numerical advantage lasted for all of two minutes; Matty Burrows following suit with a similarly dangerous foul in the same area of the pitch, in front of the AFC Totton dug-out, to earn his marching orders.
However, none of that affected the scoreline one iota, and when the final whistle came, the home side in the away kit were left to celebrate another three points on the board to round off an impressive November and December. Since the defeat at Redditch United that ended Totton’s interest in the Isuzu FA Trophy at the end of October, The Stags have Played 10, Won 9 and Drawn 1 in all competitions, sending them into 2023 in excellent form.
After the match, AFC Totton manager Jimmy Ball said:
“The games come thick and fast this time of year, while every manager is having to deal with players who are catching colds and struggling with illness. Today, we came up against a side who are fighting for their lives at the bottom of the league, and they made it hard for us as they’re entitled to do, but a little bit of quality shone through for us in the end and we came out with a positive result.
“We had plenty of opportunities to score early on, and I think if we had, it would have been a different game and we might well have gone on to score a hatful. But they took the lead with a very well-taken goal - maybe we could have got a bit closer to him but I can’t really complain about that, my defenders have been excellent for me this season. And then our lads showed exactly the kind of grit, determination, desire to win and the togetherness we needed to ultimately overcome difficult opponents.
“We took Lewis Noice off as a precaution; we’re not expecting him to be out for any length of time. As for Matty Burrows getting sent off, yeah, it’s frustrating to lose a player of his quality but he’s a young lad who routinely gets kicked from pillar to post and when the match as a whole was boiling over, he let the situation get to him a little bit and made a rash decision. He’ll be suspended for a while now, so he’ll have to learn from this experience. He’s a great kid with bags of ability. He took his goal brilliantly - I was never in doubt, as soon as he received the ball with a clear run on goal. I’m really pleased to have him at this football club, and we’re all looking forward to working with him more in the future to help him realise his massive potential in the game. But, we have a great squad and while Matty’s unavailable for selection, it’s a chance for somebody else to step up and stake their own claim for a place in the team, so I’m not too concerned.”
NEXT UP: SHOLING vs AFC TOTTON
Southern League Div.1 South | Matchday 18
Imperial Homes Stadium | Monday 02 January 2023 | Kick-Off 3:00pm
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
