AFC Totton
SOUTHERN LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION SOUTH | Matchday#38
Wednesday 10 April 2024 | Snows Stadium, Totton, Southampton | Att: 1,182
STAGS WRANGLE ROBINS TO CONFIRM QUALIFICATION FOR THE PLAY-OFFS
AFC TOTTON 3
Tony Lee 39mins; 75mins
Ethan Taylor 62mins
BRACKNELL TOWN 2
Jordan Espirit 49mins;
Great Evans 71mins
AFC TOTTON BOOKED THEIR PLACE in the Southern League Premier Division South Promotion Play-Offs by completing a league double over rivals Bracknell Town at the Snows Stadium on Wednesday night. Having beaten The Robins 5-1 on their own pitch earlier in the season, The Stags recovered from twice being pegged back to emerge as winners on the night thanks to two goals from Tony Lee and one from Ethan Taylor.
Jimmy Ball made only one change from the side that beat Tiverton Town at the weekend, bringing Luke Bennett back into the team in place of Joe Luque, who took a place among the substitutes.
AFC TOTTON
Starting Line-Up
13. Joshua GOULD
16. Luke BENNETT
6. Luke HALLETT
7. Joseph OASTLER
14. Ben JEFFORD
5. Charlie KENNEDY
8. Adam TOMASSO
17. Marcel McINTOSH
10. Ethan TAYLOR
9. Scott RENDELL (Capt.)
18. Tony LEE
Substitutes
4. Owen PELHAM
15. Sam MAGRI
12. Joan LUQUE PRADOS
19. Perri IANDOLO
20. Ashley CLARKE
Bracknell Town got the game started, wearing red-and-black striped shirts with black shorts and socks, while Totton were in their usual home kit of all-blue with white trim. Totton had the first chance to take the lead in the fourth minute when a long ball through the middle from Ethan Taylor bounced high above the central defender, enabling Tony Lee to muscle him off the ball and go clean through on Michael Eacott’s goal, but he pulled his shot narrowly wide of the left-hand post.
The visitors appeared to be a little unsettled by the poor start. Eacott accidentally threw the ball out to Scott Rendell in the middle of the Bracknell half. He poked the ball forward to Taylor, setting-up a three-on-two situation in The Stags’ favour, but captain Ashley Lodge intercepted the pass intended for Lee to tidy up for the team in red and black.
Luke Bennett hit a cross-field pass that Rendell knocked down for Taylor and received back to his feet. Rendell then passed square to Lee, who spread the play wide to Marcel McIntosh on the right, but his low cross-shot was blocked. Then, right-back Olukayode Osu had to pass back to his goalkeeper under pressure from Lee, enabling Eacott to kick clear.
Both sides tried to hit long, direct passes, but they were struggling to find their targets. Winger Ralph Vigrass tried to make a nuisance of himself on the Bracknell right, but Ben Jefford and Joshua Gould were able to get the ball clear for Totton, despite a deflection off Vigrass who jumped in the way of Gould’s kick. Then, Osu dwelt on the ball long enough for Taylor to steal it off his toe and attack the left side of the Bracknell box, before squaring in search of Lee, who was beaten to the ball by a covering defender.
Jefford and Joe Oastler had to combine to smother Jordan Espirit’s angled shot from the right-hand side, resulting in a corner to The Robins. The initial cross was knocked out but the ball fell to Michael Dada on the edge of the area; he really got hold of his shot but drove it into a teammate, and Totton were able to clear it.
Oastler had to head away a left-wing cross from inside the Totton area. Then, Lodge played Osu towards the right-wing corner, where he was able to win a corner off Jefford. Rendell and Bennett both got something on the ball to force it out of the box. Dada managed to work it out to the Bracknell left but the cross was well-defended.
Totton began to assert themselves again. Bennett passed forward to Tomasso, who helped the ball on to McIntosh to the right of the Bracknell box. With a neat shuffle of his feet, he zagged through two defenders to move infield but with no path to shoot, he tried to tee up Taylor, who already had markers on him.
INCOMING: Scott Rendell leads the line for The Stags.
Bracknell won a throw and then a corner on their left, with Great Evans trying to work an angle for his low shot, which was deflected wide. Luke Hallett leapt high and headed the ball firmly out of the Totton six-yard box. Then, Gould did well to take possession among several bodies in his penalty area when Vigrass sent in a high cross looking for Evans.
Hallett sent a high diagonal towards Rendell, who had taken up a position close to the left wing. His knock down found Taylor, who twisted on to his right foot and curled a cross into the box. Eacott had to let it bounce and before he could step forward to claim the ball, Lodge stepped in to only half-clear it. The ball fell to Kennedy, who couldn’t squeeze in a shot of his own so tried to find Taylor with a short forward pass, which ran out of play for a goal-kick.
McIntosh and Lee exchanged passes on the Totton right. When McIntosh’s return pass wrong-footed Lee, Taylor was alive to it and went for a right-footed shot from outside the box, which was charged down, before an offside flag against Rendell caused play to be interrupted.
A strong challenge by Hallett on the Totton right left the blonde-haired Haydon Vaughan limping while Totton launched a counter-attack. Lee received the ball inside the box and tried to shoot on the half-turn, but his effort was well-blocked at close quarters, before play could be stopped to allow Vaughan to receive treatment.
The flight of Oastler’s long defensive clearance caught out the last defender and briefly had Lee giving chase; Eacott came off his line to claim the ball. Then, Lee battled to win Rendell’s knock-on before bringing McIntosh into the game again, the wide man winning a corner on the right. Taylor rolled the ball to Lee, who had made a curving run to meet it on the right of the D. He looped it to the far post and Eacott met it with a one-handed punch. Oastler intercepted mid-way inside the Bracknell half and kept the pressure on by pushing the ball wide to Bennett on the right. He sent a high diagonal beyond the far post where Rendell knocked it down across the six-yard box, taking Eacott out of the equation for Tony LEE to sweep into the net from close range.
Bracknell tried to get themselves straight back into the game but when the attack broke down, Lee was fouled in the centre-circle to prevent The Stags launching a counter-attack. Then, when Hallett headed out another cross, Kennedy drove forward down the left and nudged the ball into the left corner of the penalty area where Taylor glided in behind Osu and then hit the deck, claiming a penalty. The Referee took a long hard look at the situation and decided to allow play to continue with a goal-kick to Bracknell.
The swirling wind above the Snows Stadium was joined by a very light drizzling of rain, as the two goalkeepers struck long clearances directly into one another’s penalty areas; with one dressed in all fluorescent orange and the other in fluorescent yellow, it resembled two highlighter pens playing Pong.
DEFENSIVE WALL: Adam Tomasso and Ben Jefford put up a united front by getting about the Bracknell Town forwards.
Rendell directed an angled pass out to Taylor on the left, and his cross picked out Lee in the box, whose header flew wide to the left. Then, after the board had been displayed to indicate two minutes of stoppage time at the end of the first half, Eacott came out to snatch the ball away before McIntosh could latch onto Lee’s headed flick-on.
Eacott was called into action again to repel McIntosh’s stood-up cross with a two-handed punch. Then, Jefford was caught in possession in an advanced position on the Totton left, but Tomasso was covering behind him and quickly removed the threat, before the half-time whistle sounded.
HALF-TIME:
AFC TOTTON 1
BRACKNELL TOWN 0
Bracknell began the second half brightly. Vigrass pounced on some loose control by Kennedy to advance up the right-hand side before going for a long shot that Gould parried wide for a corner. Totton defended it but when The Robins came forward again, Jordan ESPIRIT beat Luke Hallett with a burst of pace to get into the right side of the penalty area before firing an unstoppable shot past Gould to register the first goal against AFC Totton in 540 minutes of Southern League Premier Division South football.
Bracknell had their tails up. Vaughan darted to the left-wing byline and forced another corner for the visitors, which Hallett headed away. A Josh Gould goal-kick was intercepted in the centre-circle by Lodge, whose forward pass was laid off by Evans with a bit too much weight on the pass, with Espirit poised to pounce with another strike on goal, had the service been better. Gould then had to make a save low to his right, after Vaughan beat Kennedy to the ball about 20 yards from the Totton goal.
The hosts began to pull themselves together. Lee headed on for Taylor into the Bracknell box, but Eacott was swiftly off his line to claim the ball. Gould then had to make another save from a snapshot from the edge of the Totton box.
Kennedy had to wait for the ball to drop out of the sky before he could volley forward to McIntosh on the Totton right. He had two defenders to contend with but managed to knock it infield to Taylor, who quickly shifted the ball to his left foot and let fly with a shot from distance that Eacott grabbed at the second attempt before Lee could gobble up the rebound.
Taylor dribbled down the left wing, carrying the ball into the space between the corner flag and the edge of the penalty area, before pulling the ball back to Kennedy, whose shot from the back of the box was blocked. Tomasso shifted it right to Bennett, who tried to go the long way round but ran the ball out of play at the byline. Bennett was then pressed into defensive action to prevent Vaughan latching on to Eacott’s goal-kick with a well-timed sliding tackle.
Bennett was involved again when Totton retook the lead two minutes after the hour mark. He received Hallett’s pass and struck a high ball forward to Lee on the edge of Bracknell’s box. Lee held off his marker to slip a short pass into the run of Ethan TAYLOR, who wrong-footed the defender in front of him and used him as a screen to stroke the ball past Eacott into the bottom-left corner.
GET IN: Ethan Taylor celebrates after putting AFC Totton back in front against Bracknell Town at the Snows Stadium.
Jimmy Ball made a double change before the restart, bringing off Luke Hallett and Ben Jefford, while sending on Sam Magri and Joan Luque. McIntosh reshuffled into the right-back position to allow Luque to take up the attacking midfielder role.
Totton lost possession high on the left wing but Tomasso was in strongly to win it back in midfield. Lee had a brief sight of goal when payed in by Luque’s pass. Eacott managed to poke the ball away before he could get his shot away and Taylor’s follow-up effort was deflected wide for a corner. Taylor’s cross was partially cleared before Kennedy bustled his way into the Bracknell area and tried to place his shot, guiding it narrowly wide to the left.
Bracknell defender Philip Croker headed wide of the far post from a free-kick on their right, mid-way inside Totton’s half. McIntosh intercepted a loose pass during a Bracknell counter-attack but his forward ball intended for Taylor was a fraction too hard for the winger to keep in play.
Sam Magri had his name taken by the Referee for tugging back Espirit, who had beaten him for pace while counter-attacking close to the half-way line. Vaughan took the free-kick, which was headed out as far as Michael Dada, whose shot flicked off Lee and flew wide for a corner on the Bracknell right. It was initially cleared before Vigrass had his shot blocked. It rebounded to Luque, who tried to carry it forward but lost possession at the half-way line. As Totton players appealed for a foul, the Referee waved play on and Bracknell sprung forward down the right wing. Vigrass pulled the ball back from close to the corner flag for Great EVANS to fire high into the net to level the scores once again.
Bennett picked the ball up in the left-back position and drove forward on a solo run that culminated in his 22-yard shot being blocked at the edge of the area. Haydon Vaughan was booked for holding McIntosh back as the two of them tussled for the ball near half-way, with both benches reacting angrily to the Referee’s attempt to wait and see whether any kind of advantage might accrue in Totton’s favour. When Magri clipped the ball forward, Lee complained that his marker was climbing all over him from behind.
Just four minutes after conceding Bracknell’s second goal, Totton went ahead for the third time in the match. The Stags gained possession on the right-hand side and Taylor clipped the ball down the wing for McIntosh. Eacott was tempted to come scurrying out of his area to put the ball into touch, but McIntosh was too quick and too alert for him, getting to the ball first at the touchline and squaring into the area to the unmarked Tony LEE who knew exactly where the goal was and swept the ball home with a swing of his right boot.
Totton came forward again. Taylor kept the ball in play at the right-wing corner flag before pulling it back to McIntosh, whose high, swirling cross was controlled and cleared by a defender at the far post. Dada fired a shot over the crossbar, after receiving the ball in space in the middle of the Totton half.
Lee needed some physio attention for an injury but was able to continue. A Josh Gould drop-kick bounced in the Bracknell box and wide of Eacott’s goal to bring a few chuckles at what might have been from the Snows Stadium faithful. Then, McIntosh and Taylor combined on the right before getting bogged down in red-and-black shirted defenders at the corner of the box.
ALL SMILES: Marcel McIntosh looking very pleased with himself.
Great Evans managed to get away with a blatant two-handed push on Magri in the Totton area before the ball fell to Dada, who dragged his shot across goal and wide of the far post. Then at the other end, Lee squared the ball to Taylor on the edge of the area, and the winger squeezed a shot between two defenders to force Eacott to parry wide for a corner. Luque crossed to the edge of the six-yard box; Rendell met it with a powerful header but could only steer the ball wide.
Magri and Oastler got caught both competing for the same aerial ball. It dropped kindly for Espirit, who looked destined to score his second goal of the night until McIntosh nicked the ball off his toe and cleared for Totton.
During five minutes of stoppage time, Rendell was indebted to Luque and Bennett who both sprinted back to repair the potential damage of a loose pass across the centre-circle that set Bracknell up for an unexpected counter-attack, before an offside flag eventually relieved the pressure from the home team. McIntosh was then well-placed to head clear a cross from the Bracknell right, and he had to be alert to clear again when Bennett sliced his attempted clearance into the air at the edge of the Totton box.
A late bit of pushing and shoving ended with Great Evans and Tony Lee both being shown the yellow card, but Totton held on to win the game and secure their place in the Southern League Premier Division South’s Promotion Play-Offs.
Watch Manager Jimmy Ball’s Post-Match Interview
Watch Ethan Taylor’s Post-Match Interview
Latest Southern League Premier Division South table
Next Up: HUNGERFORD TOWN vs AFC TOTTON
Southern League Premier Division South | Matchday#39 | Town Ground, Built Lane, Hungerford, West Berkshire RG17 0AY | Saturday 13 April 2024 | Kick-Off at 3:00pm
By Ben Rochey-Adams
Images courtesy of Tom McKenzie
