AFC Totton
SOUTHERN LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION SOUTH - Matchday #1
Saturday 05 August 2023 | Earlsmead Stadium, South Harrow | Att: 182
STAGS BREAK HARROW HEARTS WITH LATE, LATE COMEBACK
HARROW BOROUGH 1
Reece Mitchell 45mins
AFC TOTTON 2
Charlie Kennedy 90+7mins; Matty Burrows 90+8mins
TWO GOALS IN INJURY TIME at the end of the opening match of their 2023/24 Southern League Premier Division South season saw AFC Totton stage a staggering smash-and-grab raid on 10-men Harrow Borough at the Earlsmead Stadium in North West London yesterday (Saturday 05 August 2023).
Manager Jimmy Ball named two of his summer signings in the starting line-up, with forwards Alfie Stanley and Jake Scrimshaw partnering last season’s top scorer Scott Rendell in the front three. Sam Magri was joined on the substitute’s bench by Leon Maloney, a former Portsmouth and FC Volendam attacking midfielder who joined the club this week. AFC Totton will be wearing squad numbers this season, rather than the traditional 1-to-11.
AFC TOTTON
Starting XI
1. Lewis NOICE
2. Benny READ
5. Charlie KENNEDY (Capt.)
6. Luke HALLETT
3. Jordan RAGGUETTE
4. Mike CARTER
7. Charlie DAVIS
8. Adam TOMASSO
9. Scott RENDELL
16. Alfie STANLEY
18. Jake SCRIMSHAW
Substitutes
10. Ethan TAYLOR
11. Matty BURROWS
15. Sam MAGRI
17. Leon MALONEY
20. Conor WHITELEY
Home manager Jordan Berry, a former Plymouth Argyle midfielder, was taking charge of his first competitive match in the Harrow Borough hot seat having joined the club from Egham Town in May. Intermittent rain showers greeted the two teams as they took to the pitch and went through their pre-game warm ups. The Stags started the match, wearing their new away strip of gun metal grey shirts and shorts, with safety yellow sleeves and socks. Jake Scrimshaw had the honour of being the first AFC Totton player to kick a ball in the 2023/24 season.
Harrow, who wore all-red, won an early free-kick for a foul just off the left corner of the Totton penalty area, but the visitors dealt with the delivery. Then, Luke Hallett did well to get to a through-ball down the Harrow left, lengthening his stride to beat the pacy winger Reece Mitchell to the ball.
Totton’s first foray forward came in the 12th minute. A cross from the right-hand side was intercepted by the Harrow captain Reece Yorke, the ball bouncing up and appearing to strike his arm. Half-hearted Totton appeals for a penalty yielded no result but Charlie Davis took possession in the centre-circle and managed to lay it off to Adam Tomasso before being brought down by a late sliding tackle. The Referee allowed the advantage as Tomasso moved the ball out to Benny Read on the right, whose cross into the centre was knocked down about 22 yards out, tempting Tomasso to drive in a low shot across the wet surface that Borough goalkeeper Tyler Tobin did well to save. The keeper got down sharply to his left to parry the initial effort and then claimed the ball at the second attempt before Jake Scrimshaw could convert the rebound.
The visitors were forced into an early substitution on 20 minutes when skipper Mike Carter pulled a muscle as he stretched, trying to help Hallett’s volleyed clearance on its way with an over the shoulder hook of his own that briefly threatened to put Scrimshaw through on goal. Carter handed the captain’s armband to Charlie Kennedy, who moved into midfield with oncoming sub Sam Magri taking his place alongside Hallett in the centre of defence - but not before Jordan Ragguette and Jimmy Ball were both shown the yellow card, the former for time-wasting and the latter for dissent, when the Referee refused to allow Magri to enter the field of play wearing an item of jewellery.
Harrow Borough finished in the Southern League Premier Division South’s relegation places last season but were given a reprieve from the drop following the voluntary demotion of Metropolitan Police. But a much-changed squad were warming to their task during the mid-point of the first half. A swift interchange between the left-back Mack Miskin, midfielder Nagheeb Ibrahim and the fleet-footed Mitchell saw them sweep from the left touchline into the middle of the pitch, from where Mitchell threaded a pass to the feet of Excellence Muhemba in the inside-right channel. His angled shot was blocked by Lewis Noice, the ball striking the Totton keeper on the shoulder and looping high enough for Read to head out to the edge of the area. Harrow’s No.10 Lonit Talla got it under control but faced with a wall of gun metal grey he couldn’t find an angle for a shot and The Stags got the ball away.
Alfie Stanley went down in the Harrow penalty area just past the half-hour mark, as he and Scrimshaw both tried to get in on the right of the home team’s area. The Referee saw no foul and play continued. A few minutes later, Totton won a free-kick within shooting range, slightly to the left of the D. Charlie Davis went for goal but his effort struck the defensive wall and went wide for a corner. As Harrow defended the cross, Scrimshaw went down claiming that his ankles had been clipped, but again the Referee saw nothing untoward and waved play on. Scrimshaw’s protests continued until the next time the ball went out of play, for which he earned himself a yellow card.
A 38th-minute counter-attack by Harrow down their right flank saw space open up on the opposite wing. Miskin scampered forward to latch onto the cross-field pass and found himself with a direct route to goal. He advanced a few paces before taking aim, but his effort lacked conviction and Noice was able to dive on the ball inside his six-yard box.
Three minutes later, an aerial challenge between Scott Rendell and Reece Yorke resulted in the ball dropping kindly for Scrimshaw, about 25 yards out. He attempted a shot on the turn that lacked power but still had Tobin scrambling across his goal as it sneaked narrowly wide of the left-hand post.
On the stroke of half-time, Totton were made to pay the price for a momentary lapse in concentration. Ragguette did well to stop the progress of the similarly physically robust Muhemba down the Harrow right with two strong challenges that irked home fans on that side of the ground but troubled neither the Harrow player nor the Referee. The second of those challenges put the ball out of play and from the resulting throw-in, Totton failed to react as the ball was progressed into the middle to present Reece MITCHELL with the chance to fire home a left-footed half volley from about 20 yards, giving Noice no chance in the Totton goal.
Totton tried to mount an immediate response, Rendell heading wide from Hallett’s cross-field ball from the right, but they couldn’t muster an equaliser, so The Stags went in trailing at the break.
HALF-TIME
HARROW BOROUGH 1
AFC TOTTON 0
Jimmy Ball signalled his dissatisfaction with what he had witnessed in the first half by making both of his two remaining permitted substitutions during the interval. Ethan Taylor and Matty Burrows entered the fray, with Alfie Stanley and Charlie Davis being withdrawn. The dark rain clouds of earlier were slowly floating away beyond a nearby primary school behind the goal The Stags were now attacking, as brighter cloud drifted in from the opposite end of the ground.
Taylor took up a left-wing position, and it was his combination with Ragguette down that flank that presented Rendell with a shooting opportunity which a defender half-blocked, causing the ball to loop high over the Harrow goal and go behind for a corner. Taylor’s delivery was well defended and Harrow launched a counter-attack that Totton eventually quelled.
A foul on Matty Burrows, whose ability to run with the ball at pace was causing concern for the home defence, gave Ethan Taylor a free-kick within shooting range, just to the right of the D. He struck the ball left-footed, curling his shot over the crossbar and into the car park behind that end of the ground.
Lonit Talla was shown the yellow card on the hour mark, after Lewis Noice had caught the ball from a Harrow corner and tried to launch Totton on a quick counter, only to be interfered with in the process by the Borough forward.
Totton began to see more of the ball and, with Harrow forced back into their defensive third, won a succession of free-kicks in wide areas. One delivery from the left by Taylor was fractionally too high even for the spring-heeled Luke Hallett, and then when Taylor was tripped on the left wing, Burrows sent the ball over right-footed. It wasn’t clear whether he intended to cross or shoot but the ball arced across the face of goal, far out of the reach of any of his teammates, before going harmlessly wide.
The dynamic of the match was changed dramatically in the 72nd minute when Harrow’s Russ Oulton, who had only stepped onto the pitch as a substitute about 15 minutes earlier, was adjudged to have elbowed Charlie Kennedy in the face as the two of them competed for a high ball near the centre-circle. Oulton had been spoken to for an earlier trip on Taylor but not booked, so it was a straight red card from the Referee that dismissed him and put Harrow down to 10 men. Kennedy was able to continue without receiving treatment.
Harrow made another change with which they appeared to be reorganising into a 5-2-2 formation, and they preceded to defend the middle of their defensive third very well, allowing Totton to have possession around the periphery but working hard to block the angles for crosses and to close off any avenues or in-roads towards Tyler Tobin’s goal.
And that was how the game played out for many of the remaining minutes; Totton shifted the ball from right to left and back again, with all four defenders and the two central midfielders getting plenty of touches, while a lack of movement and the sheer weight of numbers in the middle meant that very little got through to cause the home side much concern. Burrows flickered and flittered down the right wing, taking his marker to the byline in an effort to provide service for Rendell and Scrimshaw, but there was always a red shirt in the way to make the block or, when the need arose, commit a foul and resolve to defending the free-kick.
With four minutes of normal time remaining, The Stags thought they had equalised when Taylor sent in a corner from the left and Hallett leapt above his marker to head the ball towards the back post. Among a sea of arms and legs, Rendell managed to bundle the ball into net only for the Referee’s Assistant on the far side to have his flag raised to rule it out - either for an offside against Rendell or, possibly, for a push by Hallett while flicking the ball on which left the defender on the ground.
Another Totton corner in the 90th minute had Hallett teeing up Tomasso for a shot from 18 yards that curled just over at the top-right corner, with Tobin watching on as a grateful bystander. And with their slender lead still intact, Harrow began to run the clock down, keeping the ball close to Totton’s corner flags when they were able to and, even when they won corners or free-kicks in advanced positions, opting to keep seven of their nine outfield players clustered around the half-way line and centre-circle, guarding against conceding an equaliser rather than going in search of a second goal to secure the victory.
It was what many would call good game management, and when Excellence Muhemba received the ball midway inside his own half from a partially-cleared Totton corner and set-off on a run that took him the length of the pitch, outstripping Magri for pace to present himself with a one-on-one opportunity against Noice, it appeared to be paying dividends for the men in red. But Noice used the narrow angle to his advantage, staying upright to deflect the ball wide for a corner.
After a short period of more keep-the-ball nonsense near the corner flag, Totton won a free-kick for offside with the game already six minutes into stoppage time. The home side were again pressed back into their defensive shape. Read’s cross from the right had Rendell jumping but he got clattered from behind by Yorke. It wasn’t a foul, despite Rendell clearly feeling the effects of the challenge, as the ball came out to Ragguette on the Totton left, where he was being closely marshalled by the right-back Barsa Mirtahmasebi. Ragguette passed back to Magri who clipped his high-arcing delivery over the majority of the players clustered within the Harrow penalty area, dropping the ball invitingly at the back post for the inrushing Charlie KENNEDY to make a solid connection with his right instep to send the ball across Tobin and into the left side of the goal for a last-gasp equaliser.
The 10 men of Harrow Borough had paid the price for sticking when they should have twisted, and no doubt restarted the game resigned to having to accept just one point when they had dared to set their hearts on all three. But, like Commander Peter Quincy Taggart's band of heroes in the stellar movie 'Galaxy Quest', AFC Totton never give up, never surrender.
The Stags pounced on the ball and immediately set about securing the winner. Harrow fell back into their defensive shape, but the sheer persistence of Benny Read bludgeoned an avenue into existence where there previously was none, the roving right-back forcing and battling his way between two defenders down the inside-right channel, even seeming to overrun the ball at the byline before hooking his right leg back to return it to his possession before the hitherto impressive Miskin could punt it upfield. Read laid the ball back and Matty BURROWS found himself a pocket of space to take a touch and fire an angled shot past Tobin and into the middle of the goal.
As the AFC Totton contingent went mad in celebration all around the ground, a flurry of gun metal grey and bright yellow converged on the pitch to form a bundle of relief at such a dramatic late turnaround. There was even an opportunity for some comedy time-wasting as Lewis Noice struggled to resolve the problem of too many footballs on the playing surface before Harrow could restart the game, which they were barely able to do before the Referee confirmed that AFC Totton’s 2023/24 campaign had begun with an away win and all three points.
After the match, AFC Totton Manager Jimmy Ball (pictured) said:
“We weren’t at the races in the first half; we were much too passive and allowed them to play. But in the second half, we adapted a lot better and started moving the ball more effectively. When they decided to camp in, it became much more the kind of game we experienced last season where the emphasis was more often than not on us to break the other team down, whether we were the home side or playing away.
“I won’t sugarcoat what I thought was a poor first-half performance, and we will need to look at that and try to deal with it so we don’t do it again, but the players - to their credit - didn’t give in; they kept going right to the very end and, as we’ve seen with this team on a number of occasions during my time at the club, they’ve shown massive strength of character and self-belief, and they’ve gone and won the game right at the death.
“This team is never beaten, they fight for everything. I thought the Referee gave a lot their way in the first half but then he gave a lot our way in the second. The sending off was probably unfortunate, in that I don’t think the player meant to elbow Charlie Kennedy, but his arm did make contact with Charlie’s face and the Ref was in a good position to see it clearly. So, it’s one of them that you take it when it works in your favour, and I thought the players used their numerical advantage to good effect - even if it took a little longer than we might have wanted it to.
“Harrow were time-wasting towards the end, which is understandable when you’re a goal-up at home but also a man-down with only minutes to go. But I don’t think they knew who they were up against; you can’t do that to this team. You adopt a negative mentality, you’re just inviting these lads to come back and bite you, and that’s what they did. It doesn’t surprise me anymore, it’s a part of these lads’ DNA. As I said, I’m not going to pretend that it was a great performance overall, because it wasn’t up to the levels that we’ve set for ourselves. But the lads knew that and they dug that bit deeper and worked even harder to first salvage a point and then go all-out to win all three, and I’m delighted that they were able to do that.
“We’ve got two tough games coming up now at home Salisbury and then Poole Town, so hopefully we’ll have good strong home crowds for both of those and we can try to make it a very positive start to the new season.”
Next Up: AFC TOTTON vs SALISBURY
Southern League Premier Division South | Matchday#2 | Snows Stadium, Totton SO40 2RW | Saturday 12 August 2023 | Kick-Off at 3:00pm | Purchase tickets online today.
By Ben Rochey-Adams
