AFC Totton
SOUTHAMPTON SENIOR CUP
Quarter-Final
HAMBLE CLUB 0
AFC TOTTON 4
Lewis Waterfield 12mins; Shaquille Gwengwe 42mins (pen); Jack Hoey 61mins; Brett Williams 79mins
AFC Totton reached the semi-finals of the Southampton Senior Cup with a quarter-final victory at Wessex League Premier side Hamble Club last night (Tuesday), with two goals in either half seeing Jimmy Ball’s men through to a comfortable win at The Abbey.
Following the goalless draw at Paulton Rovers at the weekend and with a heavy schedule of league and cup matches ahead, Ball shuffled his pack by reverting to the 3-4-3 system he employed in the recent double-header against Bideford. Harry Medway was rested so Ben Jefford took the captain’s armband, operating as a left-sided centre-back with Pascal Kpohomouh coming into the side to form a back-line trio with him and Rob Flooks. Lewis Waterfield, recently recalled from his loan at Lymington Town, came into midfield and Jack Hoey, who has just recovered from COVID, was given his first start since the Hampshire Senior Cup defeat to Eastleigh almost a month ago. Shaquille Gwengwe took the No.9 shirt with Hisham Kasimu and Brett Williams both named among the substitutes.
Hamble Club - wearing yellow shirts, black shorts and yellow socks - got the cut-tie underway and soon found themselves with an early opportunity to get on the scoresheet when a direct pass from the left found Harvey Ingledew-Coak in acres of space on the right-hand side, but the winger could only strike his effort straight at Lewis Noice.
The hard playing surface at The Abbey nearly caught the home side out soon after, when Jake Adams drove a left-footed shot from 20 yards that kicked up off the ground just in front of The Monks’ goalkeeper Ash Downs and hit him in the face. He turned away and seemed momentarily dazed but Shaquille Gwengwe couldn’t get to the loose ball before the defender to convert what would have effectively been an open goal. Hamble forward Kelvin Robinson took note and tried to test Noice with a similarly long-range attempt but the ball bounced into the arms of the Stags goalkeeper.
Noice was in action again in the 9th minute, nullifying a long throw from the Hamble left touchline by taking the ball cleanly among a clutch of players at his near post. He then quickly distributed the ball long, releasing Jack Hoey on the counter attack down the Totton right. His cross bounced too high for Jordan Ragguette. Lewis Waterfield tried to keep the chance alive but was crowded out on the edge of the area.
From an even, if somewhat frantic start to the match, Totton were beginning to shift through the gears with increasing speed and intensity to their game with Freddie Read bustling about effectively in midfield to reclaim and maintain possession, while his teammates looked to play dangerous diagonals out to the flanks. And on 12 minutes, the Stags took the lead. Ragguette took possession on half-way on Totton’s left and advanced. Adams made a diagonal run from the centre to further up the left flank, calling for a low forward pass, but Ragguette opted to take advantage of the space Adams had created in his wake and dribbled infield. When he got to the middle, he found his progress blocked so he turned and laid the ball square, back the way he had come, presenting Lewis WATERFIELD with the chance to take a touch 25 yards out and pick his spot with a beautifully curled right-foot shot into the far bottom corner, the hard bounce taking the ball away from Downs before he could dive for it.
ON TARGET: Lewis Waterfield got the goals flowing for AFC Totton with a 25-yard curler.
Totton were hitting their stride and a couple of minutes later, Ragguette’s cross-field ball found Adams in an advanced position on the right touchline. He controlled the ball skilfully and then flicked it over the defender’s head, darting around him to strike a volley from the other side, which flew over the bar. Then, Pascal Kpohomouh played an incisive through-ball to release Hoey into the inside-right channel with Gwengwe matching his run in the middle, but Hoey’s low squared pass was stabbed away by a covering defender.
Hoey’s header from an Adams cross in the 19th minute forced Downs to make a save. Then, Kelvin Robinson flashed an ambitious left-foot strike across the Totton goalmouth, the ball bouncing wide of the far post.
Waterfield hit the ball cross-field to Callum Baughan on the right-hand side. His pass infield found Hoey, who quickly exchanged passes with Read and shot narrowly wide from about 20 yards. Then, Adams slipped Ragguette into a dangerous central area. He took a moment to shift the ball onto his left foot, allowing defenders to get around him, then blasted over the bar from the edge of the D.
Totton were well on-top and Adams created another chance on the half hour, linking with Gwengwe and Ragguette to tee-up Waterfield for another low shot from the edge of the box, which went wide of the right-hand post. Then, Baughan’s ball into the box put Hoey through to the right-wing byline. He dinked the ball into the middle where Adams arrived with the goal at his mercy from 5 yards but he had to stretch and couldn’t control his touch, knocking the ball wide to the left.
Downs saved a low, angled drive from Adams from the left, then the playmaker unleashed a fiercer effort from 25 yards when Hoey’s pass enabled him to turn into space on his left foot, the keeper doing well to parry his shot wide for a corner, which he subsequently punched away.
Hamble managed to mount an attack and almost registered an equaliser against the run of play when a cross from the left-hand side was headed by Rob Flooks and appeared to bounce on the top of the crossbar - twice - before going behind for a corner to the home side. The delivery was defended at the expense of a throw-in on the right-hand side. Jamie Ovington launched the ball into the box and Charlie Wagstaffe directed a header at goal, but Noice grabbed the ball safely to his chest.
Read and Ragguette tried to work their way in from an advanced position on the left wing but were dispossessed, sparking a swift move from the home side that swept from right-to-left and found Wagstaffe in space on Hamble’s left-wing, from where he shot wide. Then, the Monks’ skipper Ryan Wilkins showed good skills on the right-wing to force a corner off Freddie Read, who stuck to his task well against his opposite No.4 despite their considerable miss-match in height. The corner came in from the right and was headed out; two consecutive follow-up shots were underhit and Totton broke away with Ragguette on the left wing, until a lunging tackle by Ingledew-Coak brought him down, painfully, earning the Hamble player the game’s first yellow card.
SHAQ ON THE SPOT: Shaquille Gwengwe doubled the Stags' lead from the penalty spot at The Abbey, in the Southampton Senior Cup quarter-final.
Totton got the second goal their play deserved, three minutes from half-time, although not without controversy. The ball was played long from defence out to Jack Hoey on the right-hand side. He appeared to be in an offside position, although the defender looked favourite to get to the ball first until it took a hard bounce that enabled Hoey to check infield of him, prompting a tug that brought the Totton man down inside the penalty area and the award of a spot-kick from the Referee. Hamble complained, with some justification, about the absence of an offside flag but to no avail. Shaquille GWENGWE sent the goalkeeper the wrong way as he slotted the ball into the bottom-right corner to put the Stags two-up.
A free-kick from Hamble just before the break was headed down inside the Totton box, but there was nobody there to apply the finish. Then, a strong, well-timed sliding tackle by the Stags’ skipper on the night, Ben Jefford, just inside his own half of the pitch prevented Ingledew-Coak breaking away down the Hamble right.
HALF-TIME
HAMBLE CLUB 0
AFC TOTTON 2
Totton were straight on the attack from the start of the second half, Ragguette heading down a cross from the right-hand side inside the Hamble box. Jamie Ovington tried to clear but completely missed his kick, but neither Gwengwe nor Hoey could get close enough to capitalise. Then, Jefford did well to prevent Hamble getting anything from a counter-attack by getting ahead of the forward to head safely back to Noice.
Pascal Kpohomouh tried to shepherd the ball out close to his right-wing defensive corner flag, only for Sanchez McLean to unceremoniously dump him to the ground with a shoulder charge, turning away with the ball at his feet and pulling it back for Robinson to take aim. But the forward couldn’t sort his feet out and could only waft the ball in Noice’s general direction, much to the goalkeeper’s gratitude. Robinson looked much more assured attacking down the left-wing and finding McLean with a short pass inside, which the centre-forward held up well and laid off to Wilkins whose shot veered wide.
Noice comfortably gathered a free-kick from the right inside a crowded penalty area, then punted the ball upfield and, within a moment, Gwengwe hooked a shot over the Hamble crossbar, before he was subsequently substituted by Jimmy Ball, Hisham Kasimu coming on in his place.
HOEY, THE LADS: Jack Hoey's lob made it 3-0 to AFC Totton.
Just after the hour mark, Adams lobbed a pass over the last man to play Kasimu in straight down the middle of the pitch. Ash Downs raced out to close the angle and appeared to handle the ball outside his penalty area, which may have presented the Referee with no choice but to issue the Hamble keeper with a red card, but for the ball bouncing to Jack HOEY who looped the ball high over the bodies in front of him and into the back of the empty net to make it 3-0 to the Stags.
Just a minute later, Kasimu was racing through the centre again, requiring an excellent last-ditch tackle by Jamie Ovington, the defender injuring himself in the act and having to go off the field to receive treatment.
Ragguette cut infield from the left-hand side and tried a long-range shot on his weaker right foot, but it was charged down by a Hamble defender. Then, Brett Williams came on for Jack Hoey and Totton were soon forced into a third change when Ragguette went down after being kicked in the shin, with Ethan Taylor stepping off the bench to replace him.
Hamble got the ball down and enjoyed a prolonged period of possession that resulted in their left-back, Mac Gange, lining up a shot from the D until Williams nonchalantly took his ankles away to concede a free-kick, the Stags forward lucky to escape a yellow card. The defensive wall did its job and Totton scrambled the ball away.
The home side came close to pulling a goal back in the 73rd minute, when Ingledew-Coak received a pass from Wilkins, checked onto his left foot and drove a low shot that flicked up off Kpohomouh’s foot to leave Lewis Noice stranded as the ball dropped narrowly wide of the goalkeeper’s left-hand post. His opposite number, Ash Downs, almost coughed up a cheap fourth goal when taking too long to control and clear a back-pass, allowing the livewire Kasimu to close him down, the ball bouncing off the French striker and going just wide of the Hamble goal. Then, Kasimu was at it again, taking the ball on the right-hand side with plenty of teammates up with him. But he preferred to drive infield onto his left foot, striking a low shot wide of the near post.
FANTASTIC FOURTH: Brett Williams scored the goal of the night with a fierce drive into the bottom-right corner to make it 4-0 to the Stags.
Ethan Taylor looped a pass into the feet of Brett Williams, who got it under control with two defenders around him, shooting just wide to the right in the 76th minute. But Williams was not to be denied and found the net three minutes later. Good perseverance by Adams on the left-hand side kept a Totton attack alive, the ball coming into the near post area where Kasimu had a defender at his back, so he laid it off to Taylor on the edge of the area. He fed Brett WILLIAMS in the centre who had room to open up his body and fire a low, well-struck shot under the keeper into the bottom-right corner of the net, the power of the shot causing the ball to kick up into the roof of the goal.
The impressive Lewis Waterfield took a boot to the face as he tried to run a bouncing ball out of his own penalty area and put Totton on the attack. Once he was back on his feet, Waterfield got his body in the way of substitute Alfie Prendergast’s forward charge to keep the Stags’ clean sheet intact.
Hamble kept searching for their moment, a late flag bringing a halt to one attack down the right with Jefford appealing loudly for an offside decision, then Flooks had to react quickly to poke the ball away from McLean when he got free on the left-wing byline. The corner was turned away but only as far as Wagstaffe, whose shot went wide to the left. Then, Prendergast attacked down the right and pulled the ball back to his fellow sub, Sansome, who curled his shot over the crossbar, prompting the Referee to call an end to proceedings.
Totton will now face Winchester City in the semi-final of the Southampton Senior Cup, to be played at the neutral venue of Sholing’s Mackoy Stadium on Portsmouth Road on a date to be confirmed.
Elsewhere, the Stags’ opponents this Saturday, Evesham United were unable to prevent Plymouth Parkway taking top spot in the Southern League Div.1 South table for the first time all season. Two Ethan Mitchell goals lifted Parkway a point ahead of Frome Town, with a game in-hand over all of the chasing pack.
Latest Southern League Div.1 South table
Match Report by Ben Rochey-Adams
Images courtesy of Craig Hobbs Photography
