AFC Totton
It’s fair to say that being drawn away to Havant & Waterlooville in 2nd Round Qualifying for the Emirates FA Cup is about as tough a cup tie as AFC Totton could have possibly been given at this stage of the competition.
Not only are The Hawks flying high in the National League South – currently occupying 2nd place with six wins and one draw putting them just two points behind Ebbsfleet United’s 100%-win record from the first seven matches – the pitch at their Draper Tools Community Stadium, where this cup tie is to take place on Saturday, has the same kind of 3G surface upon which The Stags have recently come unstuck on visits to Cirencester Town and Hamworthy United, either side of the summer break.
In-between those two experiences, Totton entertained Havant & Waterlooville for a friendly at the Snows Stadium on Tuesday 19 July. The Hawks were undoubtedly further ahead in their pre-season development than their hosts by then but the quality of their football on the night, leading to an emphatic 1-5 defeat for The Stags, served as a wake-up call to some within the Totton squad as to how much work they still had to do to match their Step 2 opponents.
The Hawks opened their league campaign on Saturday 06 August with a 3-1 home win over Slough Town, then they dropped two points the following week when they were held to a 1-1 draw at Braintree Town. But five consecutive wins over Dartford, Dover Athletic, Hampton & Richmond Borough, Farnborough and Chelmsford City – in a barnstorming 4-3 away win – have them among the early challengers for National League South promotion. They were due to entertain top-of-the-table rivals Ebbsfleet on Saturday, until the passing of Queen Elizabeth II caused the postponement of all football matches in England.
As a Step 2 club, Havant & Waterlooville have yet to kick a ball in this season’s FA Cup, being among those teams introduced to the competition at the 2nd Round Qualifying stage.
The match pits AFC Totton striker Scott Rendell (pictured) against his former club. Rendell was a member of the squad at the Draper Tools Community Stadium as recently as last season, contributing three league goals on their way to finishing 8th in the National League South. Defenders Harry Medway and Michael Green, and midifielder Mike Carter are all former Hawks, too.
According to our records, there have been 12 competitive meetings between these two teams since 1986, the majority of those being against the team known as Havant Town, prior to their 1998 merger with Waterlooville FC. In total, The Hawks have six wins to their name; AFC Totton have four; there have been two draws.
Havant Town and AFC Totton met on four occasions in the 1986/87 season. First came a 2-4 Wessex League defeat for the The Stags at Westleigh Park, to which Totton responded by winning the return fixture 2-1. They also faced each other in an FA Cup 2nd Round Qualifier, which went to a replay after a 1-1 draw, with Havant triumphing by the only goal at Testwood Park.
Their most recent competitive encounter came in March 2012, in a Hampshire Senior Cup Semi-Final. According to a report from the Daily Echo’s Wendy Gee, teenage debutant Jack Odam “stole the show as AFC Totton defied the odds to book a return trip to St. Mary’s”. The 16-year-old Odam fired The Stags in front with a 20-yard curling effort into the top corner. Ollie Palmer managed to equalise for The Hawks but Ryan Moss capitalised on a goalkeeping error to book Totton’s place in the Hampshire Senior Cup Final (which Totton went on to lose, 0-2 vs Eastleigh).
By Ben Rochey-Adams and Malcolm Tombs, Club Historian
Image courtesy of Craig Hobbs Photography
