AFC Totton
This Saturday the Stags are back at home and will face 14th placed Evesham in league action.
Tickets are on sale now, so come along and support the lads. afctotton.ticketco.events/uk/en
When AFC Totton travelled up to Worcestershire to take on Evesham United in their first league meeting of this season on the day after Bonfire Night, the home side went into the game in 14th position while the high-flying Stags had just been knocked off the top of the table by Frome Town’s 9-2 midweek mauling of Barnstaple Town.
It was Dan Sackman’s first away game since taking the role of Interim 1st Team Head Coach, and it turned out to be a ding-dong six-goal thriller in which the spoils were ultimately shared. It was also the first game as newly-installed Evesham manager Lee Driver-Dickerson, who only spent a month in the hot seat before leaving the club by mutual consent, with Neil Hunt resuming his previous role as interim manager.
The reliably inconsistent Robins have averaged exactly one point per game in their 20 Southern League Div.1 South matches since then, leaving them in exactly the same place in the table. Their standout results include a 2-1 win at Paulton Rovers in early-September, a 3-1 home victory over this season’s potential champions Plymouth Parkway in October, and an injury-time triumph over Lymington Town by a score of 4-3 in mid-January. They are currently on a run of six matches without a win, but that sequence includes creditable draws at Frome Town and with Sholing. They lost 0-2 at Plymouth Parkway on Tuesday night, which took Parkway to the top of the table.
They were knocked out of the FA Cup, the Buidbase FA Trophy and the Southern League Challenge Cup at the first hurdles, falling 2-4 to Lichfield, 1-4 to Kidsgrove Athletic and 2-3 to Banbury United, respectively. In the Worcestershire Senior Cup, Evesham reached the Quarter-Final but were beaten 2-3 by Worcester City of the Midland League Premier Division.
Centre-forward Michael Symons is a handful for any defender and forward Brandon Smalley should need no introduction to the Totton defence, after his performance at The Spiers & Hartwell Jubilee Stadium. Midfielder Kyle Belmonte has been among the goals recently, including a brace in that win over Lymington and the goal that put Evesham ahead at Frome in the Battle of the Robins.
LAST 5 MATCHES – All Competitions
Sat 05 Mar Frome Town A Southern League Div.1 South D 1-1
Sat 19 Mar Sholing H Southern League Div.1 South D 2-2
Sat 26 Mar Barnstaple Town A Southern League Div.1 South L 1-2
Sat 02 Apr Melksham Town H Southern League Div.1 South L 0-1
Tue 05 Apr Plymouth Parkway A Southern League Div.1 South L 0-2
AFC TOTTON vs EVESHAM UNITED – Previous Meetings
These two sides have faced each other on 14 occasions since the 2011/12 season. Evesham have won seven times; there have been four draws; and Totton have won only three.
The biggest win by either side was Evesham’s emphatic 6-0 win over the Stags on 21 November 2015. Leading by an Adam Mann goal at half-time, the Robins turned on the style in the second half with Lance Smith netting a hat-trick together with additional goals from debutant Lewis Powell and captain Matt Sysum.
On 30 November 2019, goals from Robin Nicholls, Silvano Obeng and Craig Feeney sent the Stags on their way to a 3-1 win. And earlier this season, Ben Jefford (below) scored his first goal of the season to cancel out Brandon Smalley’s opener. Ethan Taylor gave Totton the lead seven minutes into the second half before Jordan Staten levelled for the Robins, five minutes later. Taylor nudged the Stags back in front with 21 minutes to go but, with just one minute to go, Michael Symons controlled a high cross-field ball to fire under Amadeusz Skrzyniarz in the Totton goal to make it 3-3.
By Ben Rochey-Adams and Malcolm Tombs, Historian
