AFC Totton
SOUTHERN LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION SOUTH - Matchday#19
Saturday 23 December 2023 | Powerday Stadium, Hanwell | Att: 285
WOODWORK DENIES STANLEY STAGS WINNER IN WEST LONDON STALEMATE
HANWELL TOWN 0
AFC TOTTON 0
THERE WAS NOTHING TO SEPARATE the two sides when AFC Totton travelled to West London on Saturday (23 December 2023) to take on Hanwell Town in their last Southern League Premier Division South fixture before Christmas. Both sides were left cursing the woodwork, The Geordies having hit the crossbar in the first half and Alfie Stanley being denied a late, late winner in stoppage time when his shot struck the inside of the far post and bounced out.
Jimmy Ball named an unchanged side from the one that beat Hayes & Yeading United at the Snows Stadium in midweek. There was only one change among the substitutes, with Jordan Chiedozie coming into the matchday squad and Ethan Taylor stepping out. Hanwell Town, who started the game in the Southern League Premier Division South’s relegation zone, came into the game without a win in their last 12 matches.
AFC TOTTON
Starting XI
1. Lewis NOICE
2. Benny READ
15. Sam MAGRI
6. Luke HALLETT
3. Jordan RAGGUETTE
7. Joseph OASTLER
8. Adam TOMASSO
17. Leon MALONEY
18. Joseph TURNER
9. Scott RENDELL
19. Reece GRANT
Substitutes
5. Charlie KENNEDY
12. Jordan CHIEDOZIE
14. Alfie EGAN
16. Alfie STANLEY
20. Luke BENNETT
The Geordies - so-called because their club was formed by a group of construction workers relocated from Newcastle - kicked-off, wearing white shirts with thin black stripes, black shorts and socks. Totton wore their second kit of gun metal grey with fluo yellow trim. The home side asserted themselves from the start, with Sam Magri having to head Mathew MacKenzie’s long throw away at the near post and a foul on Joe Oastler serving to relieve the early pressure. Oastler then had to make a well-timed sliding tackle in the middle of Totton’s half to reclaim possession, before Adam Tomasso’s through-ball, intended to feed Scott Rendell, ran through to Samuel Beasant in the Hanwell goal.
Jordan Ragguette had to race back to divert a cross wide for a corner, after misjudging the flight of the dropping ball to allow Jacob Bancroft to progress along the Hanwell right wing. The corner was a slightly too high for incoming attackers to make a connection with the ball, and Totton were able to clear their lines.
MacKenzie was making his presence felt in midfield for the home team, while several Totton players appeared to be struggling to adapt to a slightly slippery surface. Oastler headed out another long throw from MacKenzie, but the midfielder collected the loose ball and attempted a volley that flew across goal and wide.
Luke Hallett conceded a free-kick midway inside his own half, from which Dwayne Duncan headed into the danger area among several Totton defenders. Nobody took initial charge of the situation but after a brief scramble, Lewis Noice came off his line and fell on the ball to claim possession for the visitors.
Pressure on the Hanwell defence in their left-back area enabled Totton to regain possession and Reece Grant’s pass played Leon Maloney to the right-wing byline, where he went down under the defender’s challenge, hoping for a favourable decision from the Referee, which never came.
Totton then earned a corner on the right-hand side. Maloney’s cross went through the cluster of bodies in the box. Grant controlled it on the other side of the penalty spot and fired in a shot on the turn, which struck Isaac Olorunfemi in a painful area, before Oastler was called up for wresting for the loose ball with a little too much vigour.
Tomasso was alert to the potential threat of MacKenzie, sliding in with a strong challenge to prevent his opposite number taking advantage of open space down the Hanwell right. Magri headed MacKenzie’s long throw away, presenting Grant and Joe Turner the chance to mount a counter-attack, which they failed to capitalise upon.
Buoyed by their bright start to the game, Bancroft, Daniel Fosu and Olorunfemi combined to quickly progress down the right for Hanwell, until Fosu’s shot was deflected wide for a corner by Ragguette. The cross went to the far side of the ruck, where Duncan headed back into the middle. Noice punched away with one hand and although the home team regathered the ball, they were crowded out before they could do anything with it.
Grant chased back to defend when Tomasso misjudged a header. Totton then managed to claim another corner, from which Maloney’s cross rattled between Turner and his marker before it was stabbed away. Hallett intercepted and redirected the ball back out to Maloney on the right, whose in-swinging cross was well-taken by the 6’5” Beasant, who is the son of the former Wimbledon, Southampton and England goalkeeper Dave Beasant.
Some untidy defending by Totton allowed Hanwell to move the ball forward to Fosu. Oastler tracked back to make a challenge; the ball bounced up and Oastler almost kicked Magri in the head, as his team-mate stooped to intervene on Fosu’s forward progress.
Totton began to settled down and assert themselves on the game, as characterised by their tendency to move the ball from side-to-side among the defenders and midfielders. Maloney dropped deep to receive a pass, then played Benny Read in on the overlap. His square pass found Turner, who benefitted from two defenders getting in each others way, but he couldn’t find a way through all the bodies in the box. The Stags quickly regained possession and settled into their passing rhythm, once again.
Hallett struck a long diagonal from right-to-left, which Rendell chested down for Ragguette to come inside from the left, before passing to Grant who tripped Calum Duffy in the Hanwell box, at the expense of a free-kick.
The home side almost went ahead in the 26th minute, when Olorunfemi’s cross from their right wing corner was headed out by Oastler. Tomasso stretched at the edge of the box but couldn’t reach the ball, which ran kindly enough for MacKenzie to try his luck with a dipping, curling left-footed shot that looped over Noice and struck the crossbar. Hanwell scrambled to take advantage of the rebound but Totton stood firm and cleared.
Bancroft ran at the Totton defence, forcing Hallett to kick clear, as Totton appeared to be rocking. Another long throw from MacKenzie was nodded away from the danger zone by Oastler, then a follow-up shot appeared to go past Noice before being cleared off the line by a covering defender - with so many bodies in the box, it was difficult to see who did what, but it was later confirmed that Hallett had cleared from just in front of the Totton goal. Hanwell kept the attack going by crossing from the left to the right-hand post, where Ragguette put himself in the way to divert wide. Rendell was back to head away the ensuing corner. Tomasso slipped and Ragguette had to make a strong block to prevent Hanwell getting in, again.
Grant come off worse in a 50/50 challenge with Duffy, before Hallett belted clear over the side of the stadium and into the neighbouring traffic junction to give MacKenzie another opportunity to hurl the ball into the Totton box. Oastler kicked clear before Grant was pulled up for a foul.
Duffy did well to beat Grant to a high ball on the edge of the Hanwell area, from Magri’s hooked clearance. Then, Maloney collaborated with Read and Oastler to get to the right-wing byline and chip a high cross towards Grant at the far post, but he was muscled out of it by two Hanwell defenders.
Tomasso was penalised for a bodycheck on MacKenzie, midway inside the Totton half. Once The Stags had dealt with that, they won a free-kick of their own. It was initially cleared as far as Tomasso, whose long shot hit a defender and was cleared; Hallett chased back to shut the door on the Hanwell counter-attack.
Duffy got his head in the way when Maloney tried to drive in a fierce delivery from the Totton right. Then, Turner was afforded room to bring the ball down in the centre-circle, turn and run at the Hanwell defence, before unloading with a right-footed shot that had Beasant diving low to his left to parry, with a retreating defender kicking into touch. Totton soon traded that throw-in for a corner, which was delivered towards a ruck at the near post and produced another corner from the same side. This time, Maloney’s cross was met by the head of Scott Rendell, who had darted across the front of his marker; it was a strong connection but Beasant caught the ball under his crossbar.
Magri conceded a free-kick for hand-ball about 40 yards from the Totton goal, but Hanwell wasted their opportunity by floating the ball too close to Lewis Noice. Then, Magri redeemed himself by intercepting a through-ball that would have exploited open acreage between him and his goalkeeper but for his intervention.
During three minutes of first-half stoppage time, Read got forward to rattle his way into the right corner of the penalty area and blast a shot over the top. Just before the half-time whistle, some neat footwork from Maloney prompted Fosu to bundle into him, for which the Hanwell forward was fortunate to not receive a yellow card.
HALF-TIME
HANWELL TOWN 0
AFC TOTTON 0
When the two sides came out for the second half, AFC Totton brought on Charlie Kennedy in place of Adam Tomasso. Kennedy’s first contribution was to defend a free-kick and block the follow-up attempt, before Olorunfemi put in a strong challenge on Ragguette, as the Totton left-back tried to latch on to Magri’s pass to exploit open space down the Totton left wing.
Grant and Rendell worked the ball forward down the Totton left, until Grant was again penalised for tussling with defenders a bit too aggressively.
Kennedy headed away MacKenzie’s long throw from the Hanwell left as far as Jenson Wright, who had been called into the Hanwell squad at the eleventh hour after Jack Hutchinson had injured himself during the warm-up. His cross was well-claimed by Noice, despite the number of bodies crowded around him. His quick service out to the left set Ragguette away on the counter-attack, but Olorunfemi tracked him all the way and prevented him doing any damage to the scoreline.
Ten minutes into the second half, Maloney was tripped while exchanging passes with Rendell, to win Totton a free-kick about 22 yards out to the left of centre. Maloney took it, driving a shot into the defensive wall. The clearance only went as a far as Ragguette on the left, who played a one-two with Turner before crossing towards Rendell, but Duffy flicked it away from The Stags centre-forward. Totton regained the ball and Kennedy played Read towards the byline, where the full-back skipped over one challenge before his cross was turned away at the near post.
Ragguette intercepted the ball from the left-back position and brought Turner into the game, again. Turner worked himself half-a-yard to deliver a cross to the far side, where Grant took a heavy first touch as he tried to bring the ball down. Despite being marked, he still managed to get a shot away, and Beasant parried to enable his defence to deal with it.
Hanwell centre-forward Samuel Evans is the second-top goalscorer in the division but he was having a quiet game in this one. When a cross from the right did manage to find him, he directed his header closer to the corner flag than the goal, as the skies above the Powerday Stadium turned the same shade of gun metal grey as Totton’s away shirts.
Read and Grant linked up to win a right-wing corner for Totton, but The Stags couldn’t make their presence felt from the set-piece, before Maloney committed a foul throw. Then, high pressing on the Hanwell defenders forced an error when a square pass across the centre-circle was intercepted by Ragguette, but again the forward momentum was lost when Grant tugged back Fosu to concede a free-kick.
Excellent control from Magri to bring down a high clearance enabled him to find Maloney, who had the time and space to turn and run at the Hanwell defence. Ragguette got forward in support on the left and received the pass, but when he crossed from the byline, having gone past one defender, Beasant plucked the ball out of the air at his near post.
Magri played Ragguette in down he left again. He passed infield to Turner, who clipped a cross into the box looking for Grant on the right-hand side, but it was inches away from the man on loan from Hemel Hempstead Town as he slid in, trying to finish. Turner was then replaced by Alfie Egan on 66 minutes.
Hanwell won a corner on their left, from which the cross was allowed to travel all the way to the back post. Mathew MacKenzie got to it first and headed down from only a few yards out, then watching in disbelief as the ball bounced over the crossbar.
Alfie Stanley was sent on to replace Reece Grant in the 69th minute. Charlie Kennedy was shown a yellow card for a late foul on MacKenzie, midway inside the Hanwell half. Kennedy made a more constructive contribution shortly after, though, sliding in to block substitute Daniel Carr’s effort when a diagonal pass from right-to-left had left Noice exposed at his right-had side.
Hallett cleared from a Hanwell free-kick, freeing Stanley to attack on the counter. Fabio Sole blocked his forward progress, so he passed square to Egan whose shot wrong-footed the goalkeeper via a deflection, but was still cleared by a covering defender.
Egan demonstrated his defensive qualities shortly after, getting out to the edge of the box to block a follow-up shot after Totton had knocked away a right-wing corner from The Geordies. After one Totton attack fell foul of an offside flag, Noice set Stanley away down the right wing. Carr challenged but couldn’t stop Stanley, who took aim from the edge of the area only to see his effort fly high and wide.
Stanley put the ball in the Hanwell net on 81 minutes, but the goal was ruled out for a hand-ball against Rendell as he charged his way through several players on the edge of the penalty area. Jimmy Ball was shown a yellow card for protesting the decision too voraciously. And The Stags boss’s mood won’t have been helped when Rendell also put the ball in Hanwell’s net, only to see that one ruled out for a push in the build up.
Hanwell were by now sitting deep in their own half, while Beasant took every opportunity to slow the game down. Strong wind also played its part to affect the flight of the ball, whenever it was airborne. Hanwell had two opportunities to launch counter-attacks that might have won the game for them, but inaccurate passes put paid to those ambitions.
Hallett moved the ball out of defence to Rendell, who laid it back to Oastler. A high pass found Stanley on the right wing, with Egan joining in from midfield before his long-range shot was blocked. Totton then had to defend an aerial assault, which they did successfully.
As time ebbed away at the end of the game, Totton pushed for a late winner. Stanley received a pass, running into the inside-right channel, and drove in a cross shot that was turned across goal by a covering defender with nobody in gun metal grey suitably positioned to convert the rebound. Two Totton corners didn’t help the visitors’ cause, and when the board went up to confirm the number of stoppage time minutes, it read six.
Chants of “Totton! Totton!” emanated from behind the Hanwell Town goal. Another over-hit pass by the home side let The Stags off the hook when Ragguette was stranded in the centre-circle with Hanwell attacking down their right.
Four minutes into stoppage time, Totton came within a whisker of taking all three points. Kennedy fed the ball out to Read on the right, who linked up with Egan before slipping Stanley in at the edge of the box to fire a low shot across Beasant and against the base of the left-hand post. The ball rebounded back across the gaping Hanwell goalmouth but out of reach of any Totton players.
MacKenzie tried to orchestrate a late raid for The Geordies, which Oastler did enough to disrupt. Ragguette got forward down the left and lofted in a cross that might have produced something interesting against a slightly shorter goalkeeper than Sam Beasant.
Hallett was caught out by a high bouncing ball, but Lewis Noice reacted quickly to ensure Carr couldn’t take advantage. Hallett, Maloney, Read and Kennedy worked the ball forward down the right wing but the low cross was turned away for a corner, shortly before the Referee blew for full-time.
By Ben Rochey-Adams
