AFC Totton
EMIRATES FA CUP 2022/23
2nd Round Qualifying - Saturday 17 September 2022
HAVANT & WATERLOOVILLE 1
Muhammadu Faal 23mins
AFC TOTTON 0
AFC Totton exited the FA Cup at the 2nd Round Qualifying stage on Saturday afternoon, despite a valiant effort against a Havant & Waterlooville side that plays its football two divisions higher up the English Football Pyramid.
Adam Tomasso retained his place in the team, shifting to the right of the defence, with Jordan Ragguette operating on the left-hand side. Carter was joined in central midfield by Jack Masterton and Freddie Read, with Jake Adams on the left and Ethan Taylor on the right. Eastleigh loanee Seung-Woo Yang was with the travelling party but not selected, in order to prevent him becoming cup-tied. Among the seven Stags’ substitutes was new goalkeeper Giulio Girelli, an Italian student of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Southampton University who recently signed for the club after impressing in training during a short trial.
AFC TOTTON
Starting Line-Up
1. Lewis NOICE
2. Adam TOMASSO
3. Jordan RAGGUETTE
4. Mike CARTER (Capt.)
5. Charlie KENNEDY
6. Luke HALLETT
7. Jake ADAMS
8. Jack MASTERTON
9. Scott RENDELL
10. Freddie READ
11. Ethan TAYLOR
Substitutes
12. Giulio GIRELLI
14. Brett WILLIAMS
15. Jireh OYEBAMIJI
16. Yemi ODUBADE
17. Lewis WATERFIELD
18. Pascal KPOHOMOUH
19. Enrique RUSSELL
Before the match, the teams and everyone present at the Draper Tools Community Stadium observed a minute’s silence in respect of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, followed by the playing of the National Anthem.
Havant & Waterlooville, in their all-white home kit, came close to taking an early lead in just the second minute, when their left-back Joe Newton was afforded the time and space to curl a high cross to the far post where Jake McCarthy’s header beat Lewis Noice but bounced back of the inside of the post. Newton soon regained possession and supplied another cross, which Noice was able to claim while a white shirt hit the deck in front of him, amid appeals from the home fans that their player had been pushed, but the Referee waved the penalty claims away.
AFC Totton goalkeeper Lewis Noice in possession at Havant & Waterlooville's Draper Tools Community Stadium in the Emirates FA Cup 2nd Round Qualifying match.
Within a minute, Totton had a corner on the right-hand side, earned by Jack Masterton running on to Scott Rendell’s flick. Ethan Taylor’s cross was turned away at the near post, but the Totton winger took control of the ball again, moving into a central position before shooting towards the near corner, his effort clipping the outside of the right-hand post.
The Hawks’ No.10 Billy Clifford found joy by dropping deep to instigate passing moves. Adam Tomasso and Jordan Ragguette both found themselves chasing back towards their own goal to defend Havant’s forays down either flank, within a few minutes of each other. Right-back Josh Passley threatened to run through on the Totton goal, Charlie Kennedy doing well to recover from a slip on the 3G pitch - which was watered quite liberally before the game - to clear into touch, before Luke Hallett had to put his body in the way to block a shot from the edge of the area.
Muhammadu Faal pulled out to the Havant left, putting himself up against Tomasso. He brought the ball under control and drove into the middle before dragging his low, right-footed effort wide of the near post. Then, a cross from the Havant right was diverted directly upward by Kennedy at the near post. Faal tried to position himself under the ball but couldn’t wrap his neck muscles around it to trouble Noice in the Totton goal.
In the 15th minute, Taylor pounced on a heavy touch by Newton, drawing a foul and a yellow card for the Havant left-back. From the resulting free-kick, Taylor’s in-swinging delivery found Tomasso ghosting in at the far post, but from 6 yards out he could only glance his header narrowly wide to the left.
Mike Carter and Rendell linked up through the middle to find Jake Adams in space on the left wing, his cross requiring a strong block from centre-back Joash Nembhard to redirect out of play on the far side of the ground from the main grandstand at Westleigh Park. The Hawks defended the throw-in and tried to launch a counter-attack, Hallett doing well to intervene to dispossess Faal near the Havant left-wing touchline.
Around the 20-minute mark, right winger James Roberts ran at Ragguette and managed to work enough space to let fly with a shot that seared across goal and wide to the left. But the home side took the lead in the 23rd minute.
From midway inside the Totton half, Clifford clipped the ball into the Totton box. Noice called for the ball and Kennedy tried to make himself small to allow the keeper to take possession, but the ball hit Kennedy, wrong-footing the goalkeeper and enabling Jason Prior to knock it square for Muhammadu FAAL to steer between two blue shirts and into the empty net.
A slip by Hallett allowed Faal to take the ball in an advanced position for the home side. He passed square to Clifford who found Roberts in space on the right of the penalty area, whose low shot was well-saved by Lewis Noice. Then, Clifford was back inside his own penalty area to block Jack Masterton’s run into the inside-left channel, after Rendell and Adams created an opening from the left wing.
SIZING IT UP: Ethan Taylor lines up a free-kick for AFC Totton at Havant & Waterlooville.
Totton were gifted a corner on the left when Havant goalkeeper Ross Worner miss-controlled a back-pass. Taylor, Adams and Read worked a short corner routine, from which Read shot wide across goal.
Scott Rendell, who was a Havant & Waterlooville player last season, was getting short shrift from the Hawks captain Joe Oastler who was able to match his aerial prowess to prevent flick-ons and knockdowns. Joe Newton’s attacking ability down the left flank was also causing problems for the visitors, often requiring Ethan Taylor to double-up with Tomasso to nullify the threat.
Totton’s biggest threats were coming from set-pieces. After Jake McCarthy headed one Taylor free-kick behind for a corner, Hallett arrived at the near post to steer a half-chance wide from Taylor’s right-wing delivery.
A heavy back-pass presented Havant with a corner from their left-hand side, from which Roberts had his shot blocked on the edge of the area by Hallett. Then, Faal drove infield from the left to tee up Prior, whose shot went high over the bar.
Havant came within a whisker of doubling their advantage on the stroke of half-time when Passley was allowed to carry the ball a long way forward down their right flank. Adams halted his progress for a moment, until Passley pirouetted away from him and crossed to the far post for Prior to head at goal. Noice dived to his left to parry, allowing Ragguette to clear the danger, just before the Referee’s whistle brought the first half to a close.
HALF-TIME
HAVANT & WATERLOOVILLE 1
AFC TOTTON 0
Enrique Russell was among the Stags emerging for the second half, with Jake Adams making way for him on the left of the Totton midfield.
Havant stood firm under early second-half pressure to block shots from, first, Jack Masterton and then Charlie Kennedy as Totton pushed forward from a free-kick. Then, Masterton’s attempt to cross from the left-hand side was smothered at the near side.
Rendell was shoved just outside the Havant box, as he competed for Hallett’s long ball forward. The free-kick was shortly to the left of the D, about 25 yards out. Ethan Taylor went for goal but his effort curled over the top-left corner.
Gianni Crichlow, who performed well during the pre-season friendly between these two sides in the summer, came on in place of Jason Prior who had taken a knock late in the first half.
Play had to be halted on 51 minutes to allow Joe Oastler to receive treatment for an unintentional whack to his right eye, courtesy of Scott Rendell, whose apology was well-received.
Ragguette tried to find Masterton on the Totton left but Crichlow stole the ball, passed to Roberts on the edge of the box and his fiercely-struck shot was parried by Noice and grabbed at the second attempt.
The home side then replaced their former Southampton midfielder Oscar Gobern with Tomas Kalinauskas.
Kennedy pushed forward through the middle to aid the Totton midfield and won a free-kick in a central position, just shy of 30 yards from goal. Taylor played it short and Carter stood the ball up into the penalty area, but Nembhard read the situation and headed clear for Havant.
Totton were certainly holding their own against the higher division opposition but they were finding it difficult to create clear cut chances from which to mount any real threat on Ross Worner’s goal. A surging run by Ragguette garnered a free-kick for a dangling foot by Faal. Taylor’s ball into the box searched for the head of Luke Hallett but Passley defended it for the home side. Then, another forward run by Ragguette enabled him to cross into the box from the left, Passley this time diverting the ball back to his own goalkeeper with a sliding block.
Rendell knocked the ball out to the right-hand side for Taylor to run onto. He jinked his way past Newton, until the left-back - who had already been booked - tripped him. The Referee made it clear that Newton was on a final warning and awarded the free-kick, but Taylor miss-hit his cross-shot and sent the ball ballooning over the crossbar.
Both sides then made substitutions. The goalscorer Muhammadu Faal came off to be replaced by Leon Baker, while Jack Masterton took his leave for the Stags with Tuesday night’s penalty shoot-out winner Jireh Oyebamiji coming on to bolster the Totton attack.
The busy Crichlow was causing problems for the Totton defence from Havant’s right wing, pushing Ragguette back into defensive areas more than he or manager Jimmy Ball might have liked. But the visitors were still able to get forward to test their opponents. Freddie Read took possession on the right corner of the penalty area and, aware that Taylor may have made his run too early, decided to try a pot-shot that flew narrowly wide across goal.
CLOSE ONE: Freddie Read came close to equalising for The Stags with a pot-shot from the edge of the Havant & Waterlooville penalty area.
Two minutes later, Ragguette played the ball through the legs of his opponent to find Rendell in the middle, who played a short pass to Taylor on the right-hand side. He shaped to shoot, sending the ball into the box where it deflected off Enrique Russell prompting Worner to make a spectacular reflex save. Oyebamiji was lurking but he was unable to get a decisive touch.
Oyebamiji then earned himself a yellow card for a late foul on Billy Clifford, just in front of the two dug-outs. Mike Carter was lucky to avoid the same fate for a rather more agricultural challenge on Crichlow, as Havant threatened to break down their right wing.
As the match entered its last 10 minutes, Totton looked the stronger of the two sides, with Havant having picked up a few knocks among their forwards and Carter continuing to exert his influence in front of the Stags back four against one of his former clubs.
With five minutes to go, a rash lunge from behind by Billy Clifford on Charlie Kennedy sparked an angry reaction in which several players from both teams got involved in a series of shoving matches. Once calm had been restored, Clifford was perhaps fortunate to get away with only a yellow card.
Before play could resume, Brett Williams came on in place of Enrique Russell, as Jimmy Ball rolled the dice again in search of a potential equaliser and an FA Cup Replay.
Crichlow went on a mazy run through the Totton defence, beating Kennedy on his way to goal, but he found himself at a tight angle from which he could only flick the ball onto the roof of the net, with Noice narrowing his options.
Oyebamiji thought he had a penalty shout for being pulled down as he tried to latch onto Carter’s forward pass, but the Referee wasn’t interested. As the clock ticked over into five minutes of stoppage time, Havant were happy to game-manage their way to the end, taking their time over every set-piece and taking every opportunity to delay proceedings.
Totton had the chance to level the scores three minutes into stoppage time when Oastler’s defensive header went up rather than out and Taylor was able to switch the play to Ragguette on the left wing. Ragguette curled in a cross that flew over a couple of players anticipating an aerial challenge and fell to the feet of Brett Williams, his strike for the far corner rebounding back to him before he fired his second attempt over the crossbar.
A similar move presented Ragguette with another opportunity to cross from the left but Havant managed to smother the ball as Rendell and Williams both challenged. Totton continued to press for a late equaliser with Havant happy to clear the ball into touch to keep their visitors at bay, until the Referee finally signalled the end of the match.
After the match, AFC Totton manager Jimmy Ball (picured) said:
“They’re a very good side, so I’m not frustrated that we’ve got beat. But I am frustrated that we didn’t score a goal because I thought our play deserved it. I thought we were excellent in the second half but we didn’t get the goal our play deserved. We need something to drop for us and nothing does. But if you keep working and you keep trying, you get your just rewards and we will.
“We move on to Tuesday now. I’ll say well done to the players - that’s all I can say. I thought they were excellent. If they play like that from now until the end of the season, then we should be successful. We’ve got beat, but if you’re going to get beat, that’s the way to get beat.
“I thought we should have had a penalty five minutes from the end. But it wasn’t given, so we move on, and we leave here with our shoulders back and our heads up.”
Meanwhile, in the Southern League Div.1 South, divisional newcomers Exmouth Town moved into 2nd place on goal difference with a handsome 4-1 home win over Evesham United.
Sam Griffin conceded a penalty but then scored Hamworthy United's first goal to help them fight back from a two-goal deficit to level at 2-2 with Melksham Town.
Bristol Manor Farm and Frome Town fought out a 1-1 draw at The Creek, while Bashley were beaten by a single Ethan Dunbar goal as Slimbridge AFC took all three points on their second visit to Hampshire in less than a week.
Westbury United and Tavistock AFC drew 1-1, while Wimborne Town beat Larkhall Athletic 2-0. Lymington Town remain rooted to the foot of the table, yet to register a point from their opening five league matches, as they went down 1-2 at home to Cinderford Town despite Luke Churchill's last-minute goal.
View AFC Totton’s fixture list for the 2022/23 season
Latest Southern League Div.1 South league table
By Ben Rochey-Adams
Images courtesy of Doug Webber
