AFC Totton
PRE-SEASON 2022/23 - MATCHDAY 03
Saturday 16 July 2022
AFC TOTTON 8
Jireh Oyebamiji 9mins, 64mins; Brett Williams 23mins, 36mins; Freddie Read 35mins; Jake Adams 38mins; Scott Rendell 39mins; Adam Tomasso 73mins
TOTTON & ELING 1
Enrique Russell 41mins
At a sunbaked Snows Stadium yesterday (Saturday), AFC Totton continued their preparations for the kick-off of the 2022/23 season with their first home friendly of the summer against next-door neighbours Totton & Eling in the Linden Cup.
The Stags came into their third pre-season friendly in eight days having put five goals without reply past Tytherington Rocks in South Gloucestershire last weekend, before beating Hythe & Dibden 3-0 in an ill-tempered affair on Tuesday night. Ethan Taylor, who had to be substituted at Hythe after a bad foul from behind sent him crashing to the deck, was rested for this match in which AFC Totton wore their away kit of fluo yellow shirts, black shorts and yellow socks.
AFC TOTTON - Starting Line-Up
1. Lloyd THOMAS
2. Callum BAUGHAN
3. Jordan RAGGUETTE
4. Charlie KENNEDY
5. Harry MEDWAY
6. Pascal KPOHOMOUH
7. Yemi ODUBADE
8. Adam TOMASSO
9. Jireh OYEBAMIJI
10. Brett WILLIAMS
11. Freddie READ
Craig Stanley’s visiting side, who wore red-and-black, still has a slightly makeshift look to it, as the new management team go about assembling their squad ahead of the upcoming Wessex League Div.1 campaign, and for this match their line-up included several players from the AFC Totton squad who are still working towards full match fitness.
IMMACULATE: The Snows Stadium pitch, prior to kick-off. The work of new Head Groundsman Brendan Gough with Ken Dunwell and Keith Martin.
While your roving Match Reporter was busily packing up the programme pop-up shop located just inside the main turnstile at Totton’s home ground, and purchasing a well-deserved cold drink from Straker’s Bar on a day more suited to cricket than football, Jireh Oyebamiji (JJ) had the temerity to open the score. I’m told that Yemi Odubade collected the ball on the right wing and sent a high cross to the back-post where Brett Williams headed down to present Jireh OYEBAMIJI with a virtually open goal chance, which he gobbled up by firing high into the net from close range, to maintain his record of scoring in every friendly of the pre-season, so far.
Brett Williams seemed to be on a one-man mission to test Henry Newman, the Totton & Eling goalkeeper, from distance. First, the veteran Stags striker turned and shot low for the bottom-left corner, which Newman dealt with comfortably. Then, a long period of AFC Totton possession presented Williams with the chance to unleash a left-footed snapshot from just outside the box, which the former Folland Sports keeper was again well-positioned to deal with, as he was with Williams effort number three.
Jordan Ragguette then combined cleverly with Yemi Odubade down the left-hand side to work his way into the box and fire in a low cross, prompting a goalmouth scramble at the far post with Freddie Read and Adam Tomasso both trying to force the ball over the line, but the visitors managed to divert wide for a corner. The cross was initially cleared but Brett Williams again took up a position around the D, receiving the follow-up cross and flicking the ball up for himself to strike on the volley, pulling a smart save out of Newman, diving to his left.
With Totton & Eling pushing forward, their hosts were able to breakaway, with Williams gathering the ball inside his own half, near the half-way line. He fed the run of Oyebamiji, tempting Newman to come out and close the angle. JJ poked the ball beyond the keeper and towards goal, but Zeiko Harris got back to take the ball away before it could cross the line.
Williams, who was getting plenty of the ball, then drew appreciative applause from the Snows Stadium crowd with a well-struck, low cross-field pass to exploit space on the right flank where the pacy Odubade was able to run at the opposition defence, though without much joy on this occasion. Then, seemingly enjoying the immaculate playing surface, the Stags knocked the ball around for a while, until Harry Medway and Ragguette both pushed forward down the left before switching the play to the right. Tomasso slipped the ball forward and Callum Baughan, charging forward from right-back on an underlapping run, stretched his leg around his marker to fire the ball into the side-netting. The teams were then given a water break.
When play resumed, Ragguette and Tomasso worked their way from the left to the middle, with Ragguette flicking the ball into the inside-left where Oyebamiji had darted clear of his man but rather rushed the shot, sending it wide of the left-hand post.
But on 23 minutes, Williams got his name on the scoresheet to double the home side’s lead. An attack from the right-hand side had Freddie Read tee’d up to strike but the ball was nicked off his toe, leading to another scramble in the Totton & Eling box, with Tomasso again involved. The ball squirmed off a defender to within reach of Brett WILLIAMS who toe-poked it under Newman and into the bottom-left corner.
Williams was in the thick of the action again shortly after, feeding Jordan Ragguette to surge forward from the left. The St Vincent and the Grenadines U21 international held off two defenders and let fly with a hard shot that Newman had to parry and grab at the second attempt.
Jimmy Ball then made a flood of changes to his personnel…
AFC TOTTON - Refreshed Line-Up
1. Lloyd THOMAS
6. Pascal KPOHOMOUH
7. Yemi ODUBADE
10. Brett WILLIAMS
11. Freddie READ
14. Scott RENDELL
15. Jake ADAMS
16. Mike CARTER
17. Michael GREEN
18. Luke HALLETT
19. Lewis WATERFIELD
The refreshed Stags ran rampant and made their superiority count with a flurry of goals to put the score out-of-sight. Luke Hallett nipped in to snuff out a T&E attack near the half-way line, sending the ball forward for Scott Rendell to knock-on. The ball popped up again off a defender and Rendell was able to head down from around the penalty spot to the feet of the on-rushing Freddie READ, who side-stepped Harris and slotted home from about 8 yards on 35 minutes.
A minute later, after another Read effort struck Harris, a defensive error by the Millers allowed Odubade to play the ball across goal from the right. Williams’s effort rebounded off a defender to Rendell, who laid it off again for Brett WILLIAMS to convert from close range to make it 4-0.
Two minutes later, it was 5-0. Scott Rendell’s impressive first touch was in evidence again, as he pulled a high diagonal pass from right-to-left out of the sky to slip Jake ADAMS in to attack the goal from the left side of the box. The young midfielder kept his composure and fired the ball past Newman and into the inside-netting just behind the far post.
TIDY FINISH: Jake Adams got on the scoresheet with a well-taken strike on 38 minutes.
Then, Rendell matched JJ’s record of a goal in every pre-season game so far by adding a fourth in five minutes for the Stags. A quick-footed move instigated by Adams from the left found Williams with his back to goal 30 yards out. His first time pass presented Scott RENDELL with the chance to drive in a low shot from about 20 yards, and The Sunburnt Assassin made no mistake, sending the ball out of the keeper’s reach and in off the foot of the post.
Despite being overrun, Totton & Eling did manage to pull a goal back, shortly before half-time. Zeiko Harris did well to force Rendell back to the half-way line and into passing backward to central midfielder Mike Carter, who also found himself under pressure and slipped the ball to Michael Green at left-back. Green turned away from the man pressing him and played a blind back-pass which sold his goalkeeper Lloyd Thomas short at the edge of his area, allowing Enrique RUSSELL to intercept and strike at goal. A covering defender might have blocked it, but the ball flicked off Thomas’s knee, spinning out of reach and into the goal via the left-hand post.
Williams fired over after Read’s bustling run into a crowded T&E box. Then, tenacious midfield work by Jake Adams, looking to initiate another attack for the Stags, was well-matched by Owen Pelham’s defensive diligence, covering back to shut the door for the Millers.
HALF-TIME
AFC TOTTON 6
TOTTON & ELING 1
Luke Hallett had to be alert shortly after the restart, putting in a solid sliding tackle to prevent Russell racing away into the wide open space of an unoccupied AFC Totton half. And the two players came up against each other again shortly after, with Hallett again putting in a well-timed challenge to thwart the Bermuda international striker’s forward progress.
Adams attacked down the left flank for the home side, passing infield for Green whose cross was deflected behind for a corner. Adams’s first delivery was knocked away for another corner, which he sent to the far post where Pascal Kpohomouh was unmarked, but the ex-Man City defender’s downward header bounced wide of the right-hand post.
Kpohomouh was then called into defensive action to block Diego Ramos’s shot from the edge of the box, after good work from Russell played the Venezuelan youngster in from the left.
A rare lapse of ball control by Zeiko Harris by the left-wing touchline from T&E’s point of view enabled Rendell to hit a speculative first-time shot from distance with the goalkeeper standing slightly too far to his right to stop the ball going past him, but it curled away from the left-hand post at the last moment to drift wide.
Williams came off worse when he and the 6’4” Harris collided near the half-way line. He was able to continue after receiving treatment but was then substituted along with Yemi Odubade, Michael Green and Pascal Kpohomouh, as they made way for Harry Medway, Adam Tomasso, Jireh Oyebamiji and Callum Baughan.
Enrique Russell tried his luck from 20 yards for Totton & Eling, but dragged his shot wide to the left, shortly before AFC Totton increased their lead still further. Read played the ball forward down the middle to where Rendell collected on the edge of the area, flicking it into the path of Jireh OYEBAMIJI on a diagonal run, and the livewire striker squeezed his first-time shot through the legs of the defender and into the far bottom corner.
SO GOOD, THEY NAMED HIM TWICE: The man they call JJ helped himself to a brace against Totton & Eling to take his pre-season tally to 4 goals, so far.
JJ had the chance to complete his hat-trick shortly after an errant back-pass bounced up just outside the box with the keeper off his line, but Oyebamiji didn’t get enough elevation on his header and the keeper gratefully plucked the ball out of the air just above his head. Then, a tight turn and burst of pace by Adams took him away from his midfield marker. He tried to thread the ball through the eye of a needle to give Rendell a shooting chance, but Harris read it well and did enough to force Rendell to scuff his shot.
Rendell’s knock down near half-way found Tomasso, whose first-time pass straight forward set Oyebamiji on a forward sprint, but a well-timed tackle prevented him breaking away. Then, Adams and Ragguette on the left created the chance for Oyebamiji to take a snapshot which flew wide of the near post.
After another water break, the teams returned to the pitch with manager Jimmy Ball dousing his own head and neck in cold water on the touchline, such was the Hampshire heat. And his team made it 8-1 on 73mins.
Jake Adams took a corner from the right-hand side, which came back to him via a partial Totton & Eling clearance. From a wider angle, Adams sent over an in-swinging cross which Oyebamiji headed for goal. The keeper got something on the ball, causing it to bounce on the line, and Adam TOMASSO was there to force it home despite the defenders trying to stop him.
Good defending and skill on the ball by former Darlington and Mansfield Town central defender Tom Lycett, who had come on for Totton & Eling, drew some admiration from the crowd. Then, the Millers won a free-kick to the left of the D, which Diego Ramos inadvisedly struck directly into the chest of Mike Carter, who was on the end of the three-man Stags wall.
Brenno Narezzi, playing in midfield for the Millers, took possession 30 yards out in a central position and curled a delicious effort over the reach of Lloyd Thomas only to see the ball smack the crossbar and bounce harmlessly away. Then, good skill from Adams to beat his man enabled him to cross into the box, where Rendell headed wide.
Oyebamiji showed signs of why Jimmy Ball was so keen to bring him to the Snows Stadium near the end when, after losing possession mid-way inside the Totton & Eling half, he chased back deep into midfield to correct his own mistake, playing the ball forward and then sprinting back into position at the head of the attack. The ball didn’t come back to him again at that point, but it was a moment indicative of the diligence and hard work that’s going to be necessary from all AFC Totton players if the team is to achieve its ambitions this season.
Fleet-footed approach play by Adams and Oyebamiji earned a free-kick for AFC Totton near the right-wing corner flag. Adams’s delivery curled towards the near post and Rendell got across his marker well, but couldn’t keep his effort down, shortly before the Referee blew the final whistle.
After the match, Stags manager Jimmy Ball gave his verdict on the afternoon’s action:
“I thought the lads played well. You can see the players, including several new recruits, are beginning to show that cohesion and understanding of the patterns of play that we’ve been working on. They’re doing the right things and delivering on the things we’ve been focussing on in training, so that’s pleasing. It was another opportunity today to get minutes into their legs - I don’t think anyone other than the goalkeeper has played a full 90 minutes, yet, but everyone is working up to that level and progressing well,” he said.
“I thought Totton & Eling did well today, they kept going and showed some quality, despite the big scoreline. I think they’ll do well in their league this season. We’re on course with where I expected us to be at this stage and on Tuesday night we’ll play the first of five matches against higher league opposition. Nothing changes in terms of our approach; we’ll keep working as we have been but the players should now be that much fitter and more prepared. It’s not about results, though, at this point - it’s about following the process and continuing to put the work in that will enable us to peak when the competitive games start.”
Havant & Waterlooville are the next visitors to the Snows Stadium, for AFC Totton’s second consecutive home friendly on Tuesday night. Kick-off will be at 7:45pm. Read our Havant & Waterlooville match preview.
View AFC Totton’s fixture list for the 2022/23 season
By Ben Rochey-Adams
Images courtesy of Steve Brookwell and Craig Hobbs Photography
