AFC Totton
VENUE
Badgers Hill Stadium, Berkley Road, Frome, Somerset BA11 2EH
The Tuesday 14 December meeting between AFC Totton and Frome Town at the Snows Stadium is, alongside the FA Trophy wins over Dorchester Town and Concord Rangers, the highlight of the season so far for many Stags fans. Two goals from Hisham Kasimu and a third from Ethan Taylor clawed back three valuable points on the team that, at the time, appeared to be Totton’s biggest rivals for the Southern League Div.1 South title.
Since then, while both Totton and Frome have struggled to maintain their early season form, Cirencester Town, Winchester City and Sholing have all reasserted themselves to make for what will surely be the most exciting end-of-season run in for many years.
After that defeat at the Snows Stadium, the Robins came back from 0-2 down to salvage a 3-3 draw at home to midtable Melksham Town courtesy of a 93rd-minute equaliser by Alex Hallet. On New Year’s Day, they managed a creditable 2-0 victory at Paulton Rovers but followed that up with a home defeat by the same scoreline to Cirencester Town, who went top of the table thanks to two well-taken goals by the physically imposing Nicholas Peare. A goalless draw at Winchester City and a hard-fought 2-0 win at home to struggling Bideford leave the Somerset-based club just two points behind Cirencester, with a game in-hand.
On Tuesday night, Danny Greaves’ team booked their place in the semi-final of the Somerset Premier Cup with a 2-1 win at Weston-super-Mare of the Southern League Premier South. Among the substitutes was their new signing Callum Evans, a former Manchester United Academy centre-back who joined the Robins last week from Vanarama National League South side Bath City. The 26-year-old has also played for Barnsley, Torquay United, Forest Green Rovers and Macclesfied Town – where he was a Vanarama National League title-winner in 2017/18 – before joining Port Vale the following summer.
Frome have further strengthened their defence with the signing of Mike Baker from Larkhall Athletic. The tough-tackling centre-back, who is a product of the Bristol Rovers Academy, wore the captain’s armband in the Larks’ recent Buildbase FA Trophy 4th Round defeat at Stockport County. He also played in the defeat of Totton at Plain Ham in the previous round on Saturday 19 December.
Striker Kane Simpson has 13 goals in the league this season, placing him 5th in the rankings – one hat-trick away from Hisham Kasimu. Ex-AFC Totton attacking midfielder Jonathan Davies is widely considered one of the most talented creative players operating at this level of the English Football League Pyramid. And team captain Samuel Teale is a tall, solid central defender who is comfortable in possession, often initiating attacks for his team from the defensive third.
FROME TOWN – LAST 5 MATCHES (All Competitions)
Sat 01 Jan Paulton Rovers A Southern League Div.1 South W 2-0
Sat 15 Jan Cirencester Town H Southern League Div.1 South L 0-2
Sat 22 Jan Winchester City A Southern League Div.1 South D 0-0
Sat 29 Jan Bideford H Southern League Div.1 South W 2-0
Tue 01 Feb Weston-super-Mare A Southern League Div.1 South W 2-1
AFC TOTTON vs FROME TOWN – Previous Meetings
Since the 2009/10 season, these two clubs have met 17 times. In 14 league encounters, Totton edge it with 6 wins to Frome Town’s 5, with 3 draws. The Stag’s penalty shoot-out victory over the Robins in the Buildbase FA Trophy 1st Round Proper back in October was our first win against them in cup encounters. One of Frome’s cup wins against Totton was also via a shoot-out during the ultimately abandoned 2020/21 season.
Since joining Frome, Jonathan Davies has made a habit of scoring goals against his old team. His winner knocked us out of the FA Cup Preliminary Round in 2017/18, and he was at it again in October 2019 when his 62nd minute free-kick secured a 3-2 win for the Robins. In the return match that season, he scored a hat-trick without reply in a convincing 0-3 Totton defeat. And, it was his equaliser that took the FA Trophy match earlier this season to a penalty shoot-out, only for Stags goalkeeper Amadeusz Skryzniarz to hand Totton the advantage by spectacularly saving Davies’ opening spot-kick.
In the most recent meeting at the Snows Stadium just before Christmas, Hisham Kasimu latched onto a lofted pass from Ethan Taylor to open the scoring for the home side. And Kasimu (above) added a second, going through one-on-one versus goalkeeper James Carey before hammering his shot home. Taylor added some gloss to the scoreline, manufacturing a tidy curled effort into the bottom corner from the edge of the box to make it 3-0 to the Stags.
By Ben Rochey-Adams and Malcolm Tombs, Historian
Images courtesy of Craig Hobbs Photography
