AFC Totton
VENUE: The Imperial Homes Stadium, Gunners Keep, Portsmouth Road, Southampton SO19 9PW
AFC TOTTON WILL MAKE THE SHORT TRIP across the Itchen Bridge to go head-to-head with their Southern League Div.1 South title rivals Sholing on Monday, when the current league leaders entertain the division’s most in-form team.
Both sides came into the 2022/23 season as many people’s favourites to be there-or-thereabouts – to use a phrase that only seems to exist within football punditry – by the end of the campaign. But whereas last term The Stags and The Boatmen were among a cluster of teams battling for the one automatic promotion slot that comes with being crowned Champions, this time around a lot of the early pretenders have fallen away and left the two teams from either side of the City of Southampton to duke it out amongst themselves.
Sholing have led the way all-season, thanks to an exceptional start to the campaign that saw them win all of their first seven league matches despite problems with their own pitch, that resulted in The Boatmen being allowed to switch several early-season home games to away fixtures while the necessary work was being completed.
Slimbridge AFC, Melksham Town and Evesham United were all despatched with consummate ease before Sholing came to the Snows Stadium for an August Bank Holiday Monday encounter. Totton dominated the ball for long periods and created several chances to score but were unable to apply the finish when it mattered. Almost inevitably, Sholing striker Lee Wort broke away on a counter-attack in the 67th minute to deliver a sucker punch to the home side and carry away all three points.
But October defeats on the road at Westbury United and Bideford AFC have prevented Manager Dave Diaper’s team from running away with it, while AFC Totton’s run of 13 league matches unbeaten since that game has put The Stags within touching distance of top spot, if they can take maximum points from their two games in-hand and triumph across the water on Monday.
Diaper has one of the more settled teams in the division, which he has cultivated over the course of several years at the helm of the 2013/14 FA Vase winners. Daniel Mason is Sholing’s top scorer in the league with 13 goals so far this season, closely followed by Lee Wort who has hit the net 11 times – and both players were on-target in the 3-1 Boxing Day success at Bashley. Wort struck a hat-trick in the 5-1 win against Melksham Town in The Boatmen’s second game of the season; Daniel Mason – whose brother Byron is club captain – did likewise in the return match against the same opponents in November.
In the Emirates FA Cup Preliminary Round, Sholing overcame Brett Pitman’s AFC Portchester side 2-1. A goalless draw at Slimbridge AFC in 1st Round Qualifying led to a replay, which Sholing won comfortably by a final score of 5-2, before National League South side Chippenham Town eliminated them from the competition with a 0-3 defeat at Hardenhuish Park. Sholing tripped at the first hurdle in the Isuzu FA Trophy, going down by a single goal at home to Lymington Town in mid-September. They are due to face Aldershot Town away in the 3rd Round of the Hampshire Senior Cup, after beating Petersfield Town 3-1 on the road in the 2nd Round. Fawley AFC await them in the 3rd Round of the Southampton Senior Cup, with a potential home tie against Folland Sports or Bashley at stake in the Quarter-Finals. Totton have already booked their place in the last eight of the competition they won last season; they will play the winners of the tie between Alresford Town and Totton & Eling.
JORDAN TWO-TIMES: Jordan Ragguette's first two AFC Totton goals came in the Southern League Cup encounter at Sholing early last season.
Of 26 meetings between these two sides since the 2004/05 season, Sholing have won 17 times while Totton have triumphed on 8 occasions. The only draw was the first of those matches back in September 2004 when Vosper Thornycroft, as they were then known, secured a point at Testwood Park. High-scoring games tend to be a rarity with neither side ever notching more than four goals against the other. A brace from Jordan Ragguette plus goals from Brett Williams and Ethan Taylor helped Totton to a 4-1 win at Sholing in last season’s Southern League Cup, when the hosts’ goal was scored by Conor Whiteley who has since signed for AFC Totton.
By Ben Rochey-Adams and Malcolm Tombs, Club Historian
Image courtesy of Craig Hobbs Photography
