AFC Totton
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THIS SATURDAY, AFC TOTTON WILL RENEW acquaintances with the side they knocked out of the First Round of this season’s Isuzu FA Trophy when they make the 158-mile journey to South Wales for their first Southern League Premier Division South encounter with Merthyr Town.
Scott Rendell’s 51st AFC Totton goal and a last-gasp header from Luke Hallett saw The Stags fight back from Ricardo Rees’ 15th-minute opener for Merthyr at the Snows Stadium on Tuesday night to pull themselves into the Second Round of the competition in which they will face another home tie against Havant & Waterlooville, who currently sit at the foot of the National League South table having won only one of their opening 15 league games of 2023/24.
The Martyrs were looking to bounce back when they visited Hendon in the league on Saturday afternoon but they could not muster a response to Ethan Light’s goal three minutes before half-time. Light also got his name on the scoresheet when Hendon drew 1-1 at Totton on a sweltering hot Saturday afternoon on 09 September, albeit for putting the goal past his own goalkeeper on a day when The Stags’ forwards were drawing blanks. The 0-1 loss at Hendon was Merthyr’s third consecutive defeat in all competitions, extending their current run without a win to five matches.
Manager Paul Michael told the club’s YouTube channel, Martyrs TV:
“We are in a difficult spell at the moment. We’re not scoring as freely as we were at the beginning of the season, and that’s a huge difference… You make it very difficult for yourself. As a team, we’re not making that final pass, we’re not getting runners into goalscoring positions often enough, and then we’re not hitting the target – our shooting is not good enough compared to other teams.”
There is one cause for optimism, though, in the recent performances of goalkeeper Jaimie Cogman, who was a whisker away from taking The Stags to a penalty shoot-out last midweek. His display at Hendon on Saturday drew more praise from his boss, who said:
“Jaimie Cogman was outstanding today, absolutely outstanding. His timing of when to come out in one-v-one situations; we shouldn’t be needing him to be that good but that’s where we are at the moment. It’s up to me and the management team to evaluate it and improve it. He was our Man of the Match. He stood up to everything and I’m gutted for him that we weren’t able to keep a clean sheet.
MY BALL!: Merthyr Town goalkeeper Jaimie Cogman claims the ball just in front of his goal line during last Tuesday's Isuzu FA Trophy First Round tie with AFC Totton at the Snows Stadium.
“We are where we are. If people were to ask would I have taken where we are now at the start of the season, I wouldn’t have – I’d have expected more from what we put together in pre-season. We’ve got to dust ourselves down and go again next week.”
The Martyrs enjoy a plentiful and spirited home support, while the Penydarren Park pitch is a 3G surface similar to the one the aforementioned Hawks play on at Westleigh Park. Despite their recent woes, Merthyr remain very much in contention at the top end of the table, currently occupying the last of the Promotion Play-Off slots in fifth. They pushed Totton all the way on Tuesday night and also made The Stags work their socks off the last time they visited South Wales for a hard-fought 1-0 victory in last season’s FA Trophy.
With several key players out due to a combination of injury, work commitments and loan agreements, Michael has identified the need for some alterations to his playing squad, but it remains to be seen what he will be able to get resolved by the time The Stags cross the Severn Bridge and roll up to Penydarren Park at the weekend.
One Totton fan who won’t have too far to travel to attend the game on Saturday will be Stags Radio’s very own Lead Commentator Benjy Rees. AFC Totton’s man on the mic, who came to the Snows Stadium via Solent University, heralds from Gosport but now lives just a short walk from Merthyr Town’s ground, which is famous for having once been the site of a Roman Military base.
Benjy spoke to Stags boss Jimmy Ball after Saturday’s 1-2 home defeat to Hungerford Town:
“I don’t think we lacked effort, which is good, or fight or desire or determination, which is something for the fans to take heart in that their players didn’t give up and kept going and fought. But I don’t think we were at our usual levels of organisation, ingenuity and passing. We weren’t dynamic enough, everything was in front of them and we made it very easy,” explained the AFC Totton manager.
“But we did have chances, we did have enough chances to win this game – we can’t complain. But full credit to them and to Danny [Robinson], their manager. They deserved the win.”
“We needed to give more. Games of football don’t just come to you, they don’t get handed to you. We created enough in the first half but you have to go and grab it by throat. We did a bit more in the second half. But you can’t be perfect all the time; you just have to keep going. We had enough chances to get something out of that game, though, in the very least.
“Merthyr are not high up the table for no reason. They are a very, very good side. They don’t stop – they work extremely hard, they’re aggressive and like to be on the front foot, and they’ve got threats all over the pitch to score goals. We’re certainly under no illusions just because we beat them last Tuesday.
“Nothing is given to you in football, you have to fight tooth and nail for absolutely everything. You can’t have an off day in this league; you have to be on it, you have to be at it all the time and players have to know that. And if they’re not prepared to be consistent in their performances, then I’ll have to look at that because we have to be. We can’t be an 8-out-of-10 one week and a 4-out-of-10 the next, because you get found out. And we will have to address that.”
By Ben Rochey-Adams
Image courtesy of Pat FitzGerald
