AFC Totton
SOUTHERN LEAGUE DIV.1 SOUTH
Matchday #21
CIRENCESTER TOWN 2
Ellison Dunton 6mins; Joseph Shepherd 53mins
AFC TOTTON 0
Third-placed AFC Totton travelled up to Gloucestershire yesterday (Saturday) to take on Southern League Div.1 South table toppers Cirencester Town at the Corinium Stadium in a title/promotion race six-pointer. But the Stags came off second best, going down to early goals in either half and missing several opportunities to get themselves back into the match, as the Centurions took advantage of results elsewhere to open the gap on all of their rivals.
After the late cancellation in midweek of the Hampshire Senior Cup Quarter-Final with Lymington Town, Dan Sackman’s men came into this one having had a full week’s rest. But Ben Jefford failed a fitness test, after having been injured against Cinderford last weekend, so was redeployed as Co-Commentator alongside Benjy Rees on StagsRadio, with Jordan Ragguette taking the left-back spot. Ade Olumuyiwa was also unavailable, though he travelled with the group, so captain Harry Medway returned to partner Pascal Kpohomouh in central defence. Jordan Ngalo was restored to the midfield and Ethan Taylor also returned, having now completed his three match suspension for the red card he was shown at Larkhall Athletic in the FA Trophy before Christmas. Youngsters Harrison Cable and Josh Jeffries, the 16-year-old goalkeeper, were named among the substitutes.
THE CORINIUM STADIUM: Part of the main stand at Cirencester Town's ground, pre-match.
Cirencester took top spot in the league last weekend with an impressive 2-0 away win at fellow challengers Frome Town, but their two-goal hero Nicholas Peare started this match on their substitutes’ bench.
AFC TOTTON
Starting Line-Up
1. Lewis NOICE
2. Callum BAUGHAN
3. Jordan RAGGUETTE
4. Freddie READ
5. Harry MEDWAY (Capt.)
6. Pascal KPOHOMOUH
7. Jack HOEY
8. Jordan NGALO
9. Hisham KASIMU
10. Ethan TAYLOR
11. Sam GRIFFIN
Substitutes
12. Jack MASTERTON
14. Shaquille GWENGWE
15. Lewis WATERFIELD
16. Harrison CABLE
GK. Josh Jeffries
Totton, in their home kit of blue-and-white, kicked-off on the Corinium Stadium’s 3G pitch and soon found themselves pegged back into their own right-back area as a result of sustained Cirencester pressure, making it difficult for the Stags to play their way out. The home side won a corner, which Callum Baughan headed away. But the ball dropped to midfielder Nick Hancock on the left-hand side and he picked out the Centurions’ captain Jake Lee near the penalty spot, whose firm header was well-saved by Lewis Noice, diving to his left and making the catch.
The early minutes of the match were contested at a high tempo, with both teams trying to move the ball quickly amid many tackles, blocks and aerial challenges in the midfield. A foul by Jack Hoey by the centre-circle in the 5th minute led to a Cirencester free-kick on their right. With players of both sides lined up across the edge of the Totton penalty area, the ball was sent in high across the visitors’ goal. Harry Medway leapt high but the ball arced over him and, with Pascal Kpohomouh out of line with his central defensive partner, it dropped at the far post where the outstretched foot of Ellison DUNTON got to it before Baughan and directed it into the top left corner, via Noice’s right hand.
Cirencester, who wore a two-tone red shirt with black shorts and red socks, continued to press Totton in their defensive third and Noice had to hack the ball clear from a short Baughan back pass that suddenly put him under pressure with forwards closing in. But the visitors regathered their composure and came close to equalising when a long kick from Noice out towards the right flank was headed on by Ethan Taylor to Hisham Kasimu in the middle, just outside the Cirencester area. The Stags striker did well to get the ball under control with two defenders closely marshalling him and he found Sam Griffin in space on the left, who advanced on the keeper and struck a shot with the outside of his right foot, against the underside of the crossbar. As Totton fans waited with baited breath for confirmation of whether the ball had bounced over the goal-line, the home side punted the ball clear and survived with their lead in tact.
SO CLOSE: Sam Griffin hit the underside of the crossbar shortly after Cirencester took the lead.
Shortly after, Hoey headed Kasimu in behind the Centurion defence. He shifted the ball onto his left foot but didn’t pull the trigger when he had the chance, allowing Dunton to whisk it off his toe.
Totton had their tails up and a strong defensive header by Medway enabled Taylor to pick out Griffin in space on the left wing, again, but his low cross with the outside of his right foot was well-defended before it could reach Kasimu in the centre.
Callum Baughan put his body in the way of a Levi Irving shot from the left corner of the penalty area. Then, an up-and-under headed clearance by Lee fell kindly for Hancock, who shot over from distance.
Ethan Taylor thought he had a shout for a penalty in the 15th minute when he drifted in behind the full-back and tried to set himself up for a left-footed shot but Dunton was there again for the home side, timing his tackle to perfection and calmly bringing the ball out of defence, as the referee waved play on. Then, Jake Lee was booked for a handball in the centre-circle, which prevented Kasimu latching onto Hoey’s attempted through-ball that would have put him clean through on goal with half the length of the pitch to run into.
A Cirencester free-kick from their right-hand side enabled them to isolate Joseph Shepherd against the much shorter Baughan, and he headed across the penalty area. The ball dropped close to the penalty spot with Totton defenders stretching. Joshua Grace-Parsons hesitated for a moment and the ball got away from him before he could apply the finish.
One Totton attack floundered as Kasimu ran into a dead end, but his determination to retrieve the ball and run at the defence again caused problems in the home side’s defence. His cross squirmed across the box and came out to Callum Baughan on the right, supporting the attack from the right-back position. His shot was blocked for a corner on the right. Taylor crossed high to the back-post and Griffin got above his marker to head the ball. The Cirencester keeper Alex Harris pushed it onto the crossbar and a follow-up shot was deflected wide for another corner from the other side. Freddie Read took this one and Jack Hoey headed against the bar from close range.
Hoey had another headed chance a few moments later. Sam Griffin took control on the left touchline, checked onto his right foot and sent an in-swinging cross to the near post, where Hoey was gifted the freedom of middle England but couldn’t direct his diving header, the ball bouncing off him and harmlessly away from the Cirencester goal.
Despite the home side’s undoubted quality and superior experience of playing on a 3G pitch, Totton were looking the better team. Captain Medway was dominant in the midfield aerials battles from Cirencester goal kicks, and Kasimu, Taylor and Griffin were lively whenever the ball came to them. Only an uncharacteristic miss-control by Kasimu when he was played in through the centre prevented him from taking aim at Harris’s goal from just behind the penalty spot.
But Cirencester tightened up their defence and began to shut down the runs and passes into the channels. Shayne Anson, the Cirencester right-back, worked hard to get to the byline and play the ball across. Grace-Parsons flopped under the slightest touch from Medway, but the Stags captain kept his composure and played the ball out.
AYE, AYE, SKIPPER: Captain Harry Medway returned to the centre of the AFC Totton defence for the trip to Cirencester Town.
Callum Baughan was struggling to contain left-winger Levi Irving, who was constantly finding pockets of space from which to run at the Stags right-back. Baughan’s concentration seemed to be affected when he overhit a pass intended for Kpohomouh and inadvertently put Joshua Grace-Parsons through on goal, straight down the middle of the Totton penalty area. But while the Centurions’ striker was pinching himself to confirm whether this gift was real, Pascal Kpohomouh recovered the distance and, throwing himself to the ground, thrust his right leg out to block the shot and save his teammate’s blushes.
Noice caught the corner and instantly launched a counter-attack, which led to Taylor striking a low cross-shot that Harris saved, with Kasimu loitering with intent to the convert any rebounds. Then, Kasimu and Ragguette combined down the left-hand side, before Ragguette’s low cross was stabbed at goal by Griffin. Harris managed to save low to his right and Kasimu’s follow-up shot was deflected wide.
Cirencester began to get the better of the central midfield battle, forcing Totton to try to go around their opponents, but they found Alex Harris to be a willing and capable sweeper-keeper when he needed to be.
With about 8 minutes to go before half-time, Read and Hoey exchanged passes to work their way through the Cirencester midfield and play Taylor into a promising position down the middle, where the winger was able to shift the ball onto his mercurial left foot. As he took aim and pulled the trigger, Shayne Anson threw himself in the way to make a magnificent block tackle to prevent what would surely have been Taylor’s 11th league goal of the season.
A throw-in on the right-hand side found Kasimu. He floated away from two defenders and clipped a pass out to Griffin, who was once again unmarked, coming infield from the left flank. With the time and space to pick his spot, he shot directly at Harris and a golden opportunity to level the scores was lost. Totton kept up the pressure. Kasimu tried a cross-shot from the left corner of the penalty area that had to be headed away at the back post. Then, Griffin tee’d up Jordan Ragguette just outside the D, his well-struck low right-foot drive pulling a smart save from Harris. The ball popped out and, although Ragguette tried to latch onto it, Jordan Ngalo got there first but his shot was wayward.
Baughan was penalised, just before the break, for holding onto his man with the award of a Cirencester free-kick about 25 yards out, on the left-hand side. Noice came out to meet the high cross but he fumbled the ball, reacting bravely to atone for his error by throwing himself forward before Grace-Parsons could capitalise and swatting the ball away. Then, Baughan had to keep his wits about him to defend a low cross with opposition strikers lurking around him.
HALF-TIME
CIRENCESTER TOWN 1
AFC TOTTON 0
Jordan Ragguette got forward early in the second half to cross from the left-wing byline to Kasimu at the near post. Harris covered the angles well to prevent the Stags striker squeezing the ball past him.
Joshua Grace-Parsons found himself face-to-face with Lewis Noice again, when a high header forward by Thomas Anderson deceived Kpohomouh to put the forward clean through. But the Stags’ keeper made himself big and pulled off a point blank save. Then, Noice had the frame of his goal to thank for preventing Cirencester from doubling their lead from Tom Handley’s in-swinging cross from the left flank, which was aimed at Grace-Parsons in the middle but eluded his outstretched leg and bounced off the far post before Totton cleared their lines.
But Totton’s luck ran out in the 53rd minute when Cirencester went two goals up. Ragguette was chasing back towards his own goal, under pressure in the left-back position and he opted to clear the ball with an overhead kick. It fell kindly for Michael Pook, who took a touch and sent a curling cross towards the far post. Kpohomouh managed to hook the ball away inside the 6-yard box, but his clearance deflected off an opponent and fell to Joseph SHEPHERD who struck his half volley into the ground, bouncing the ball over both Kpohomouh and Noice but under the crossbar at the top-left corner.
Cirencester won a free-kick on their left-hand side, about 30 yards out by the touchline. Hancock sent it over to the far post where Dunton headed back across goal for Shepherd to shoot over amid a ruck of blue and red shirted players.
By the hour mark, the match became a series of midfield tussles and aerial challenges with neither side able to build attacks of any note, until Harry Medway was adjudged to have conceded a corner, despite his protestations that the ball had come off a Cirencester player. From the corner, the home side overloaded players on the back post, two of whom rushed forward as the ball came over, leaving Dunton free to bring it down and fire a shot on the Totton goal, which Ragguette stood strong to block. From the resulting corner, Shepherd’s cross flashed across goal, begging to be poked in at the right-hand post but with no Cirencester player in position to do so.
Dan Sackman had seen enough and decided to make a double change, with Jack Masterton replacing the ineffectual Jordan Ngalo in midfield and Ethan Taylor making way for Shaq Gwengwe on the right side of the attack.
NEW KID ON THE BLOCK: AFC Totton's Pascal Kpohomouh.
Pascal Kpohomouh put a stop to a Centurion raid down the Totton right and passed back to Noice. The keeper moved the ball to the left for Medway but, on the unfamiliar synthetic surface, the ball escaped the Stags skipper and he had to quickly adjust to kick into touch to prevent Grace-Parsons capitalising. Then, Masterton and Ragguette combined to play Kasimu down the left flank, but Shayne Anson used his strength and tenacity to good effect to keep the door closed for Cirencester.
With about 20 minutes to go, Sam Griffin and Jack Hoey worked their way down the left, culminating in Hoey receiving Griffin’s pass to feet close to the penalty area, but he was quickly closed down by Dunton.
The introduction of Jack Masterton made a positive difference to Totton’s ability to get the ball down and work it from one side of the pitch to the other more effectively. He orchestrated a move that enabled Hoey to surge forward and exchange passes with Kasimu, playing himself into the inside-right channel from where he tried to flick the ball in with the outside of his right foot, but he got the angle slightly wrong and sent his shot narrowly wide of the far post. Then, in the same area of the pitch, Kasimu was slipped in between centre-back and full-back, only to find the alert Harris ready to save with his shins.
As the last 15 minutes approached, Masterton continued to pull the strings from his deep-lying midfield position and Totton were able to pin the home side back into their own half. A Freddie Read corner from the left wing presented a headed chance for Kpohomouh, but the defender lost sight of the ball as it bounced in the 6-yard box and Harris was able to clear. Then, Baughan lined-up a speculative long-range effort, but his standing foot gave way as he struck the ball, sending it soaring high over the bar.
The characteristic workmate of Freddie Read carried the fight down the left-hand side, exchanging passes with Griffin before the latter slid Kasimu into the inside-left channel, where Lee appeared to clip his heels. But, rather than accepting the invitation to flop in the box in search of a penalty kick, Kasimu kept going and the chance was lost, despite the vocal remonstrations of Dan Sackman on the touchline.
Cirencester brought on striker Ben Whitehead in place of Joshua Grace-Parsons for the last 10 minutes.
Ragguette’s cross from the left was headed away but it came to Griffin on the edge of the box, who did well to curl a low right-foot shot between two defenders, forcing Harris into a save low to his left. Then, Totton made their third and final substitution, bringing on Lewis Waterfield for Callum Baughan at right-back.
As the match reached its last few minutes of regulation time, Cirencester began to indulge time-wasting tactics and took every opportunity to slow proceedings down. But when they were called upon to defend, they were equal to the task. Ragguette played Gwengwe in at the left-wing byline and he pulled the ball back to Griffin, whose shot was bravely blocked by Pook, putting his body on the line to maintain his side’s clean sheet and snuff out any hint that the Stags might make a late comeback, despite the 5 minutes of injury time that were then indicated. Harris beat Kasimu to a through-ball and Lewis Waterfield’s late long-range shot flew just over the target. But Totton couldn’t lay a glove on the Centurions, who saw the job through to the end to claim all three points.
Elsewhere in the Southern League Div.1 South, Frome Town were held to a goalless draw at Winchester City, who were no-doubt still smarting from a calamitous refereeing decision that robbed them of victory at home to Plymouth Parkway on Tuesday night, in an entertaining 3-3 draw. Sholing, who host the Stags this Tuesday, had their match at Slimbridge postponed. AFC Totton loanee Brett Williams opened his Lymington Town goalscoring account in their 2-2 draw with Melksham Town, while bottom-placed Barnstaple Town let a two-goal lead slip in the dying minutes, going down 2-3 to a late hat-trick by Cinderford Town’s Zachary Drew.
Match Report by Ben Rochey-Adams
Football Images courtesy of Craig Hobbs Photography
