AFC Totton
AFC Totton 1-2 Poole Town
ROBERTS BRACE SINKS STAGS
AFC Totton continued their pre-season schedule this evening with the visit of Poole Town, of the Southern League Premiership. The Stags were once again without the unavailable Mike Gosney and Dave Allen. Also missing was Taylor Edwards, who has picked up an injury.
It was The Stags who started the brightest, with Jake Burgess having 2 long range efforts to no avail. Poole then began to work their way into the game with former Stag Richard Gillespie being put in a one on one situation, bringing out fantastic slide tackle from James Roden, who had to be spot on with his challenge. As The Dolphins became more settled, they started to pass the ball around a bit better aswell. Around the half hour mark, a nice diagonal ball was played in for Luke Burbidge who took the ball down and was unfortunate to hit the far post with a placed effort. Shortly afterwards, Mowthorpe was called upon to make a good save from another Gillespie effort. Just before the stroke of half time, The Stags made a substitution, with Luke Dempsey making his first appearance in a blue shirt, owing to Marc Diaper picking up an injury just before half time. Poole made wholesale changes at half time (no Poole teamsheet) HT 0-0.
The Stags again started the 2nd period the brighter side. Nick Watts who was a nuisance to Poole all evening, played a nice dink over the top of the Poole defence for Sherborne to shoot first time, but the keeper was equal to it. Approaching the hour mark, Mowthorpe made another outstanding save, this time from a rasping drive that The Stags stopper turned away for a corner. At this point, Poole were playing their way into the game, as they did in the 1st period, but this time The Stags came undone. A quick passing move, after a slow patient build up, culminated in another former Stag Luke ROBERTS, having an easy chance to slot the ball home from close range. Totton were keen to hit back, as just 2 minutes later, Feeney raced to the byline and squared the ball, which evaded everybody as it travelled across the 6 yard box. Rawkins came on to replace Mark Lilley, who played on the wing this evening. With around 15 minutes to go, ROBERTS struck again for Poole. The Dolphins again, showed a lot of patience in their build up, before opening up the defence for Roberts to pounce. The Stags made their final sub of the evening with Dan Beckles coming on to replace Roden. With just 5 minutes to go, Feeney made a scampering run into the opposition area, only to be brought down under a sandwich of 2 defenders and the referee pointed to the spot. Feeney stepped up and converted the spot kick, albeit, with the keeper getting a hand to the ball. The Stags weren’t quite done there and with time running out, Sherborne was unlucky with an effort from the edge of the area, which had to be palmed away by the keeper, diving to his left. FT 1-2
It wasn’t to be for The Stags this evening, who again, can take plenty of positive in a game which they more than matched their opponents for extended spells of the game. It is well worth noting that Poole made wholesale changes at half time, while The Stags made just 3 changes all evening, thus having a bearing on the outcome of the game.
Things seem to be coming together for Steve Hollick and his coaching staff, quite well, with the integration of many new signings and a brand new training regime as well as a new philosophy on how the game is played. All of which takes time to implement and to see the signs of improvement will no doubt be pleasing for them and the players alike. Most supporters certainly seem happy!
We now move on to our next friendly against Farnborough FC of the Isthmian League this Saturday, at the Testwood Stadium at 3pm.
By Adi Rose at Testwood Stadium
Attendance – ??
Mowthorpe, Hibberd, *Diaper, Williams, Rolls, *Roden, Watts, Burgess, Feeney, Sherborne, Lilley.
Rawkins, Greene, Beckles, Dempsey.
(*denotes trialist)
