AFC Totton
VENUE: Langsford Park, Crowndale Road, Tavistock, Devon PL19 8JR
Away travel tickets are available online now: Click here to secure your seat on the coach!
SOUTHERN LEAGUE DIV.1 SOUTH’S meanest sharpshooters will go head-to-head this week, as AFC Totton look to enhance their title-chasing credentials when they travel to Devon for a showdown with fifth-placed Tavistock AFC.
Veteran centre-forward Scott Rendell notched his 22nd league goal of the campaign just two minutes into the second half at New Cuthbury on Saturday, to help The Stags on their way to a handsome 4-0 away win at Wimborne Town that strengthened his team’s grip on top spot while taking his own all-competitions tally for the season so far to 28 goals. The Sunburnt Assassin has been in a particularly rich vein of form recently, with eight goals from his last five league outings, including a brace in the 8-1 mauling of Bideford AFC and a hat-trick in last Tuesday’s 7-0 win at home to Paulton Rovers that saw Totton overtake Sholing to assume pole position in the Step 4 title race.
Lying in wait for The Stags at Langsford Park on Wednesday night will be Tavistock’s own dead-eyed marksman in the shape of the division’s current top scorer Liam Prynn. The former Torquay United striker’s 26-goal haul in the league includes a hat-trick in a 3-2 defeat of Sholing on 11 March and two four-goal performances at Frome Town and Paulton Rovers earlier in the season, all of which have massively contributed to Tavvy’s ongoing challenge for a place in the Promotion Play-Offs.
As a 16-year-old in 2013, Prynn was the subject of a £50,000 transfer from Torquay to Aston Villa. But the homesick teenager struggled to settle in the Midlands and returned to Plainmoor, with the deal eventually being cancelled. He has since gone on to prove himself as a reliably prolific goalscorer at non-league level, who Totton’s defenders will have to deal with if they are to come away with the points from one of their longest away trips of the campaign.
Despite the presence of the division’s top scorer in their ranks, Tavistock’s recent form has been somewhat indifferent. They began the New Year with back-to-back wins at home to Bideford and away to Melksham Town. But since then, The Lambs have been silenced by defeats at home to Westbury United, Bristol Manor Farm, Bashley and Hamworthy United, while also faltering on the road at Wimborne Town, Bishop’s Cleeve and, this past weekend, their Devon rivals Exmouth Town.
Of their last 14 league matches, Tavistock have won six, drawn only one, and lost seven – which would be archetypal midtable form but for the inconsistency of the teams around them, such as Bashley and Evesham United, while Wimborne’s recent wobbles one place above them in the league table means fourth place remains a realistic target for Manager Stuart Henderson’s team.
CLEARED FOR LANDING, WING MAN: Matty Burrows and Conor Whiteley (No.7) celebrate a goal against Tavistock AFC in The Stags' 6-1 success at the Snows Stadium in November.
Last time these two sides met, AFC Totton produced one of their finest performances of the season to date with an emphatic 6-1 victory at the Snows Stadium, inspired by a virtuoso goalscoring display from teenaged winger Matty Burrows. The Stags’ second top scorer Ethan Taylor – who now has 17 league goals to his name after getting the party started two minutes into the game at Wimborne on Saturday – contributed both the other goals to secure a big home win at the end of November.
Jimmy Ball’s men are currently on a 12-match unbeaten run in all competitions since they last tasted defeat at Sholing in February, which is their only loss in the 26 matches since being knocked out of the Isuzu FA Trophy at Redditch United in late-October. Meanwhile, at the other end of the pitch, goalkeeper Lewis Noice has kept five clean sheets from his last seven outings, conceding only two goals – The Robins’ consolation in the 8-1 demolition of Bideford and a debatable penalty from Larkhall Athletic’s wily Brad Norris.
Sholing’s scheduled match away to The Larks on Saturday was one of six fixtures in the division to fall foul of the persistent rain, meaning Totton’s win at Wimborne reduced The Stags’ number of games in-hand over their title rivals to two while also establishing a three-point lead at the top of the table. The Boatmen are not in action again until the weekend, so a win at Tavistock on Wednesday will put Totton six points clear, with one game in-hand remaining. Both sides will face teams embroiled in the relegation battle at the weekend, with Totton entertaining 19th-placed Cinderford Town, who they beat 6-1 at the Causeway Ground in November, while Sholing will travel to Silver Street to take on Willand Rovers. The Devon All-Whites have started to flicker into form with two wins from their last three games, after a wretched run of results had seen them plummet from midtable security into a fight for their Step 4 survival. And hot on the heels of Saturday’s matches will be the Bank Holiday Monday programme, when Totton make the short trip into the New Forest to play Lymington Town at The Sports Ground.
By Ben Rochey-Adams
Image courtesy of Tom Phillips
