AFC Totton
SOUTHERN LEAGUE DIV.1 SOUTH 2022/23
MATCHDAY #34 - Monday 10 April 2023
LYMINGTON TOWN 1
Ryan Fuller 90+1mins
AFC TOTTON 2
Scott Rendell 54mins, 90+5mins (pen)
TITLE-CHASING AFC TOTTON survived a late Bank Holiday Monday scare at the Lymington Sports Ground to claim all three points. The Stags looked to be heading for a scrappy one-nil away win through Scott Rendell’s 54th-minute opener before Ryan Fuller capitalised on some confusion in the Totton box to level for Lymington Town one minute into stoppage time. But there was a sting in the tail for the hosts, who conceded a penalty with 90-plus-five minutes on the clock, from which The Sunburnt Assassin wrapped up all three points for the visitors.
Facing four league matches in eight days, including this past weekend’s 3-0 home win over Cinderford Town, Manager Jimmy Ball rung the changes to freshen up his team. Captain Mike Carter was rested to make way for Adam Tomasso, who partnered Josh Carmichael in central midfield. Marcus Day and Mitchell Speechley-Price both made their first Southern League starts for AFC Totton, with Charlie Davis, Conor Whiteley and Ethan Taylor all taking places on the substitutes’ bench.
AFC TOTTON
Starting Line-Up
1. Lewis NOICE
2. Benny READ
3. Jack MASTERTON
4. Adam TOMASSO
5. Charlie KENNEDY (Capt.)
6. Luke HALLETT
7. Marcus DAY
8. Josh CARMICHAEL
9. Scott RENDELL
10. Mitchell SPEECHLEY-PRICE
11. Matty BURROWS
Substitutes
14. Mike CARTER
15. Ethan TAYLOR
16. Charlie DAVIS
17. Conor WHITELEY
18. Jordan RAGGUETTE
With a large, boisterous contingent of Stags fans backing them from behind the goal they were facing, AFC Totton got the game underway wearing their changed kit of fluo yellow shirts, black shorts and yellow socks, while Lymington were decked out in their traditional home kit of red-and-white striped shirts, with red shorts and socks.
The home side conducted the first attack of note, with a high cross-field ball from their right-hand side picking out Jamie Beasley on the left. Despite their considerable mismatch in height, Benny Read stuck to his task of pushing the forward wide and deflected his cross behind for an early corner, which Lymington failed to capitalise upon.
A foul on Mitchell Speechley-Price, the forward making his full AFC Totton debut against the club he recently departed to join The Stags, resulted in a free-kick on the left-hand side, midway inside the home team’s half. Jack Masterton’s delivery into the box was slightly too high for Speechley-Price to reach with his head, and as Matty Burrows tried to pick it up on the right of the penalty area, left-back Shawn Joseph - a one-time AFC Totton trialist - made a strong tackle to whisk the ball away, before being shouldered charged to the ground by the same player for a free-kick.
Read’s high diagonal was flicked on by Speechley-Price to Marcus Day in an advanced position on the left, but he couldn’t shake off the full-back Luke Gray and was dispossessed. Totton won the ball back and Tomasso swept it forward down the middle of the pitch for Speechley-Price to bring Scott Rendell, operating slightly deeper than usual, into the game. Rendell picked out Burrows on the right, who dribbled infield and teed-up Josh Carmichael for a 20-yard shot that was blocked before it could reach Skrzyniarz, and cleared by the Lymington defence.
Totton won a throw-in midway inside the Lymington half, on the left. Masterton took it and Charlie Kennedy, wearing the captain’s armband in the absence of Mike Carter, sent the ball into the box, once more. Rendell got the slightest of touches to flick it on to Day on the right. He cut in on his left foot and took a shot that was deflected wide to the left. Masterton and Rendell’s short corner was knocked out for another. Then, Masterton crossed to the far side where it was too high for Kennedy to achieve a meaningful header.
Speechley-Price found himself on the end of a less than warm welcome back from some of his old teammates on the pitch, although there was no hostility towards him from the crowd. From a free-kick on the right-hand side in the 14th minute, Masterton waited for Luke Hallett to make a late run into the far side of the box and picked him out beautifully, but the unmarked central defender appeared to be stuck in two minds whether to head at the target or back across goal towards Rendell, Kennedy, et al and ended up doing neither, steering the ball high over the bar.
Although they had more of the possession, Totton’s passing lacked its usual sharpness and Lymington were still very much in the game, making occasional forays forward without created clear cut chances. Beasley’s cross from the left, after receiving possession from a free-kick on the right, had Lewis Noice stretching but The Stags goalkeeper managed to make a clean catch with an opponent lying in wait beyond the far post.
STAND-IN SKIPPER: In the absence of Mike Carter, central defender Charlie Kennedy captained AFC Totton to victory at Lymington Town.
A foul on Carmichael 10 yards inside his own half enabled Totton to get the ball to Day on the left corner of the penalty area. He glided around Gray with ease and then, as he ran at a second defender inside the box, Gray caught up with him and Day went down. The Referee was not impressed and play continued with Lymington passing the ball out from the back.
Hallett was drawn into making an unnecessary challenge from behind on the tall Lymington skipper Stephen Walker, presenting Owen Fee with the chance to try his luck with a free-kick from 30 yards out, in a central position. With Benny Read, Marcus Day and Jack Masterton looking more like a Lollipop Guild tribute act than a defensive wall, Fee took aim but saw his effort deflect off one of his own players, before Kennedy picked up the loose ball by his right byline and cleared to halfway. Lymington came back, again, and Beasley’s cross from the left had to be headed away by Masterton to prevent it reaching Bullard, closing in from the Lymo right.
Speechley-Price was pulled down in the home team’s half, but a strong gust of wind blew into the stadium just as Masterton floated a free-kick cross towards the box, the wind taking it away from the line of fluo yellow shirts accumulated in the area and making it easier for the defence to hack clear. Speechley-Price showed himself to be an effective target man, bringing the ball down to bring Rendell into the game again in the 24th minute. Rendell found Day on the left-hand side, who tempted Luke Gray into bodychecking him as he threatened to skip away down the left wing. Gray was shown the yellow card, then Masterton’s free-kick delivery picked out Hallett at the far post, who headed wide to the right. The centre-back was then pressed into action at the other end, nodding the ball back to Lewis Noice to disrupt a swift Lymington counter-attack after a Totton move had broken down just outside the Lymo penalty area.
Neither side were able to assert much control over the ball, with too many long balls being hit up and down the pitch. Day received possession on the left and played a square pass infield, which found Carmichael on his heels. The midfielder reacted by getting his foot in and Day tried to burrow through several red-and-white shirts, but soon found himself crowded out before conceding a free-kick.
ROCK ON, TOMMY: Adam Tomasso returned to the starting line-up in midfield.
The wind assisted Totton for the first time when Read’s high ball from the half-way line deceived the Lymington defence and looked to have dropped kindly for Speechley-Price, running through the middle. Skrzyniarz read the situation clearly, though, and ran out of his goal to lay claim to the ball before the centre-forward could knock it past him.
Luke Gray was extremely lucky not to see red when Matty Burrows, having swapped flanks with Marcus Day, raced past him on the Totton left wing and Gray pulled him down. The Referee decided to call captain Walker over to issue Gray with a final warning. Masterton took the free-kick, which flew behind Speechley-Price but was retrieved by Day. His cross back into the centre was met with a strong one-handed punch from Skrzyniarz, directing the ball back to Day who tried to scamper into the inside-right channel but had to settle for a throw-in when a tackle diverted the ball out of play.
Carmichael played a short one-two with Rendell about 30 yards out to the left, before driving a low shot that Skrzyniarz saved comfortably. Then, Kennedy had to head away a high diagonal delivery by Beasley from a deep free-kick on the Lymington left, resulting in a throw-in for the home team, in an advanced position on their right. The ball was hurled into the Totton box where Kennedy got something on it but not enough to stop it reaching Beasley, who tried to improvise an overhead kick, sending the ball looping over the bar.
Read and Day combined down the right-hand side for the latter to cross from the byline. Speechley-Price flicked on to Burrows, who controlled it standing at a tight angle to the goal from the left-wing byline. He tried to blast a shot into the top-far corner but got underneath it, sending the ball careening across goal and out of play on the far side for a throw-in.
Totton had to defend a Lymington free-kick for a foul by Carmichael on Owen Fee. They did so effectively, and Burrows came away with the ball, running at red-and-white shirts straight down the middle of the pitch. As he advanced into a threatening position, Tom Andrews clipped his heel and, although Burrows stayed on his feet and kept going, when he was surrounded by defenders, the Referee pulled the play back to give Totton the free-kick and show Andrews the yellow card. Masterton played the free-kick short but The Stags were forced back before they could create an opening.
A long kick from Noice freed Burrows to run down the left wing. He played in a low cross that was just behind Rendell but Speechley-Price, with his back to goal, touched it back to his No.9 whose side-footed snapshot was straight at Skrzyniarz. Day tried to get in from the right-hand side, just before the break, but Shawn Joseph made a strong tackle to halt his progress.
HALF-TIME
LYMINGTON TOWN 0
AFC TOTTON 0
As the teams came out for the second half, Ethan Taylor took up a position on the right-hand side of Totton’s frontline wearing the No.15 shirt. Marcus Day was the player making way. The Stags came galloping out of the gate in the first five minutes of the second-half. As Totton came forward, Rendell forced the ball out to Burrows on the left but his cross was too long. Read raced forward from fall-back to keep the ball in play at the far touchline, before darting into the side of the area and pulling it back for Carmichael whose first shot was blocked, as was his second. Rendell had a go; the ball bounced back off a defender. Read took a shot; it cannoned off a defender and back to Tomasso, whose driven attempt took a nick of a defender for a corner on the right.
Totton kept pulling the Lymington defence into areas they didn’t want to go. Carmichael swept the ball down the right-wing for Speechley-Price to run onto it. He pulled it back low for Rendell in the centre, who shot the ball into two defenders standing in front of him. Then, Rendell ignored a packed midfield to take a free-kick quickly by squaring the ball to Read on the right-hand side. He fed Taylor on the flank, whose cross invited Speechley-Price to try an acrobatic overhead kick, though he sent the ball well-wide of the target.
Rendell got the better of an aerial challenge in the centre-circle, doing enough to force the ball to Tomasso who volleyed it to Burrows on the left-hand side. The winger ran at his marker and another covering defender, jinking onto his right foot before having the first of two shots blocked, the second going for a corner on the Totton left. Masterton sent it high into the box and as the incoming Luke Hallett leapt for it, there was a clear shove with a hand in his back to send him off course, but the Referee didn’t see it and play continued. Taylor collected the ball on the right and laid it off for Carmichael, whose shot was charged down and cleared.
The visitors made the breakthrough in the 54th minute. After a Lymington attack had broken down, the ball bounced in the centre-circle from where Ethan Taylor hooked a left-footed pass out to the right flank, where Mitchell Speechley-Price gave willing chase to get there before Shawn Joseph and held onto possession at the right corner of the penalty area. Holding the ball long enough to allow his teammate to get forward, Speechley-Price rolled the ball into the middle for Scott RENDELL to finish with a firm swing of his right instep to put The Stags ahead.
THE HITMAN AND HIM: Benny Read congratulates Scott Rendell on another goal for AFC Totton.
Lymington tried to fight back straight away, and Stephen Walker won a free-kick after a brief tussle with Speechley-Price near the halfway line. Skrzyniarz took it, sending the ball high towards the left side of the Totton penalty area. Walker was the target and as the ball reached him, he went down under Charlie Kennedy’s challenge. The Referee wasn’t interested in the home side’s penalty appeals and the ball went out for a goal kick.
Totton regrouped after one attempt to get forward was rebuffed by the Lymington defence. Benny Read had enough space on the right side of the halfway line to let the ball bounce over him and send Taylor away with a lobbed pass down the right wing. Taylor got the ball under control and advanced towards the corner of the penalty area, while Read sprinted past on the overlap to create space for Taylor to drop his shoulder and shoot left-footed. His effort deflected off a defender’s shin, looped across goal and dropped narrowly wide of the far post. The corner was knocked out as far as Carmichael, who gave it back to Taylor, the winger trying to dribble his way between all the red-and-white stripes on the edge of the area until an unlucky bobble took the ball out of his reach and behind for a goal kick.
As the clock ticked past the hour mark, the visitors were pressing Lymington back into their own defensive third, making it difficult for them to construct any kind of passing movement to progress the ball through midfield or threaten the Totton defence. Shawn Joseph’s long throw ability posed an occasional threat. Kennedy headed out from a left-wing throw and when the ball came back across the box to Walker, about 12 yards out with several players between him and goal, he could only loop his header over the frame of the goal.
Luke Hallett’s name was recorded in the Referee’s notebook for dissent, after a free-kick decision went against his team near the halfway line. Masterton did well to cut-out an attempted through-ball down Lymington’s right. Then, Kennedy had to take command of a straight pass between him and Hallett that threatened to put Bullard in at the right-hand post, with Lewis Noice opting to leave it to the skipper on the day to usher the ball away.
Tomasso fed Burrows on the left wing, who skipped wide of Ryan Fuller before cutting the ball back along the ground. Rendell managed to reached out a long leg to stab at the ball but, under pressure from Ryan Batley, he poked the ball wide.
On 68 minutes, Jimmy Ball sent Charlie Davis on in place of Matty Burrows, and an early contribution from the midfielder was to send a high cross towards Taylor from the right-hand side which Skrzyniarz claimed confidently.
Hallett made two defensive clearances, the second of which gave Joseph another chance to hurl the ball into the box from the left-wing touchline, Totton’s spring-heeled No.6 in position to head clear from the edge of the six-yard box. A clever hooked cross from Walker gave Fee a brief sight of goal from the Lymington right, but Masterton read the situation well and headed the ball out of the midfielder’s reach. Fee then combined with Bullard to try and launch a raid down the right flank, but Kennedy and Masterton teamed up to repel the danger.
Joseph conceded a throw in close to his left corner flag, from which Taylor received the ball, made his way to the corner of the box and took a shot that was deflected past the far post. Davis took an in-swinging cross that flashed between several bodies in the penalty area and out the other side.
WHAT'S YELLOW AND CAN FLY?: Luke Hallett, when he's wearing AFC Totton's away kit (although, I would also accept "canary" or "hurled banana").
Owen Fee was booked for a foul on Masterton, after a long ball brought Noice out of his area to head out of the midfielder’s reach and Totton’s left-back tried to dribble away with it. Noice took the kick, sending it over Joseph’s head to allow Charlie Davis to dash in behind and crack a low shot towards the near post corner, which Skrzyniarz reacted sharply to save. Then, Skrzyniarz was alert again to grab the ball at the edge of his area as Davis tried to latch onto Rendell’s return pass from a swift one-two.
Masterton picked Beasley’s pocket to feed Taylor on the Totton left. As Beasley scampered back to try and atone, Taylor jinked out towards the touchline to create the angle to fire in a low cross that flashed across Skrzyniarz and just eluded the stretched big toe of the sliding Speechley-Price, who vented his frustration by angrily beating the turf while on all fours inside the six-yard box.
Lymington were reduced to long balls, while Totton continued to try and play football. Davis picked up a loose ball in the centre-circle and was allowed to travel a long way before laying it into the path of the overlapping Benny Read. But the full-back scooped his cross over the bar with Rendell poised to attack at the far post.
Mitchell Speechley-Price’s return to his former hunting ground was cut short with the introduction of Conor Whiteley for the last 12 minutes. His first contribution was to receive Rendell’s headed flicked-on from a deep Masterton free-kick, holding the ball for a moment to then slip it to Read, whose shot was charged down.
A familiar face entered the fray in the 80th minute when Jack Seddon, a defender who had a brief spell at the Snows Stadium earlier this season, came on for Ryan Batley who had pulled up with a thigh strain or a possible hamstring injury.
Totton were on top but needed a second goal to put the result beyond doubt. Carmichael and Taylor went in search of it down the left, and eventually forced a throw-in. Masterton took it and Taylor’s cross found Rendell at the near post, where Skrzyniarz parried wide for a corner. Walker jumped high to head Davis’s delivery away but Totton regained possession, worked it back to the left-hand side for Davis, and he chipped the ball beyond the far post where Rendell’s side-foot volley presented Hallett with the chance to score with a diving header. It was unclear whether the ball went into the goal but it was disallowed for an offside against Hallett, or if it hit the side-netting behind the left-hand post; either way, whether it was with a free-kick or a goal kick, Skrzyniarz restarted the play quickly.
Totton won it back straight away and Taylor took on a defender just inside the penalty area. As he knocked the ball to the left, Taylor went down claiming a penalty. The Referee had little hesitation in awarding a free-kick the other way, booking Ethan Taylor for simulation.
With four minutes left on the clock, Lymington had a scare when Walker leapt high trying to head clear Taylor’s wickedly in-swinging cross from a right-wing corner. The ball was a fraction too high for the big defender and dropped over his head. But his leap had effectively eclipsed Samuel Shearer’s view of the incoming cross and the ball struck him on the thigh and bounced only inches wide of the left-hand post. Davis took the corner from the other wing. Taylor controlled the ball on his chest but was suddenly surrounded by defenders before he could tee-up Whiteley for a shot.
TAYLOR'D TO MEASURE: Ethan Taylor made a positive impact from the subs' bench, coming on for the second half at Lymington Town.
Carmichael showed impressive determination to force Jack Seddon back from Rendell’s lay-off. Masterton picked the ball up and passed to Taylor, who took it to the corner flag to try and eat up some seconds. Lymington cleared but Davis and Whiteley found space on the right flank for Davis to cross to the edge of the area. Rendell touched the ball back to Taylor in a central position, but his left-footed shot soared high over the bar.
As Skrzyniarz prepared to take the goal kick, Stephen Walker positioned himself up against Josh Carmichael at the intersection between the halfway line and Lymington’s right-wing touchline. The two of them tussled as the high ball came forward and Walker went down to claim a free-kick. Carmichael pleaded his innocence to both the Referee and the Assistant Referee who was standing nearby, while Walker trotted forward looking back at the scene with a wry smile on his face that revealed all. Skrzyniarz came to the halfway line to take the free-kick, sending the ball towards the crowd huddled around the penalty spot. It arced over Hallett and his immediate opponent and dropped to strike Kennedy, who then stretched to try and clear it with his left foot. A series of ricochets ensued that resulted in the ball popping out of the back of the penalty area to the feet of Ryan FULLER, whose low drive took a decisive deflection in front of Lewis Noice and found its way into the bottom-right corner of the Totton net. With the game already one minute into stoppage time, the home side celebrated like they had won the FA Cup, with a rapidly increasing bundle of red-and-white stripes amassing on the left of Totton’s penalty area.
The Stags, meanwhile, were staring a major missed opportunity to steal a march on their title rivals by significantly increasing the gap between themselves and Sholing at the top of the table with only four games left to play. Totton restarted the game and poured forward, with Luke Hallett given licence to forego his defensive responsibilities and become a makeshift striker - an experiment that Jimmy Ball ran all the way back in September during the 4-0 Southampton Senior Cup success at Ringwood Town.
Kennedy sent a high diagonal into the Lymington box, where a combination of Walker and Seddon managed to bat it away. Read sent in a cross, which Hallett headed firmly at goal but, again, too high. The large congregation of Totton fans, who had switched ends for the second-half, tried to suck the ball into the net but time was slipping away, together with the three points.
Five minutes beyond the full 90, Masterton hooked the ball forward into the middle, about 25 yards out. Hallett leapt and headed the ball down to Ethan Taylor, who latched onto it amid two defenders to progress into the inside-left channel. His shot was blocked by a defender throwing himself full length but he quickly gathered the rebound and turned outwards to face the left-wing touchline, as though intending to lay the ball back to a teammate on the edge of the box. But as he did so, a defender caught his ankle and he crashed to the ground. The Referee immediately awarded a penalty - despite vociferous complaints from the home side - and the match came down a single strike of the ball from AFC Totton’s talismanic centre-forward.
The tension was palpable, with Totton fans behind the goal and all around the stadium praying to whatever they believe in that their top goalscorer - who has missed from the spot more than once this season - would send The Stags into a seven-point lead at the top of the table. Fortunately for AFC Totton, the coolest head in the whole of Hampshire rests on the shoulders of Scott RENDELL, who made no mistake in firing his spot-kick past Amadeusz Skrzyniarz to snatch back the win from the jaws of what would have been a disappointing draw.
In the ensuing mayhem, a section of the modular plastic fencing that surrounds the football pitch at the Lymington Sports Ground collapsed - as it is specifically designed to do, to prevent crushing. The restart had to be delayed while Josh Carmichael and Amadeusz Skrzyniarz helped people back to their feet and order was restored. Thankfully, nobody was injured.
Lymington tried to surge forward after restarting the game, and a couple of high deliveries into the Totton box had fluo yellow-clad limbs appearing from nowhere to whack the ball to safety. Totton hearts were briefly in mouths when the ball was allowed to bounce near the penalty spot, but Kennedy got there first to clear, before the Referee blew the final whistle.
Totton need two wins from their four remaining league games to seal the title and confirm automatic promotion to the Southern League Premier Division, though with a vastly superior goal difference, five points will likely be enough. The Stags’ busy schedule continues on Wednesday night with a trip to Wiltshire to take on Melksham Town. They will then entertain Exmouth Town on Saturday, before the already twice-rearranged fixture at home to Frome Town will finally go ahead on Tuesday night. Jimmy Ball’s men will round out the regular league campaign with a long journey to Evesham United next Saturday.
Whichever side wins the Southern League Div.1 South title will face their counterparts from the Central division in the Champion of Champions Play-Off on Saturday 29 April. Berkhamsted have already been confirmed as the title winners from that division, where they are 14 points clear at the top with only three games to go for second-placed Biggleswade. The Comrades visited the Snows Stadium in the FA Trophy in September, when a late goal from Jake Adams gave Totton a 2-1 win.
After the match, AFC Totton boss Jimmy Ball (pictured, right) said:
“It was a hard watch, to be honest. I think the ball was out of play more than it was in play. We were up against a team fighting for their lives against relegation and the windy conditions dictated that the game had to be a certain way. But, as with the game at Tavistock, I’m proud of my players and I would be even if we hadn’t found that late winner. They found a way to win, which they really deserved. It was a game that was going to be decided on a moment of absolute brilliance or a mistake, like the penalty that was a mistake by them. But we got what we deserved.
“Scott Rendell has been different class all season. He’s started every single game at the age of 36. A lot of teams would have buckled today when they equalised with four minutes to play but we didn’t, and that’s really pleasing. The fans were incredible, they brought a great atmosphere. It was like a proper football game. But it was sad they couldn’t watch a nice, flowing game of football. They had to watch a war but it’s good when your team wins a war.
“The game was hard so we made a few changes to bring fresh legs on and get players running in behind the opposition. After a game like that and a last minute winner, to go straight into another game is exactly what the players want. They’re buzzing, they’re flying. They’re playing great and fighting - any way you want it, we’ll come and have a game with you. If you want to have a scrap, no problem; if you want to play football, even better.”
Watch the full StagsTV interview with Benjy Rees
Latest Southern League Div.1 South league table
View AFC Totton’s fixture list for the 2022/23 season
By Ben Rochey-Adams
Images courtesy of Craig Hobbs Photography
