AFC Totton
When Paulton Rovers came to the Snows Stadium two weeks before Christmas and racked up the highest score against AFC Totton in a single match so far this season, the smart money would have been on the Rovers powering onward and upward to play a major part in the Southern League Div.1 South promotion race.
Their 4-2 win was well-deserved on the day and took them to 5th place in the table, despite having already lost a third of their matches by then – half-a-dozen, the same number as Bristol Manor Farm - and a 3-0 home win against midtable Melksham Town followed before the Yuletide celebrations.
But, a 1-2 loss at Larkhall Athletic’s idyllic Plain Ham ground on Boxing Day triggered a run of five consecutive defeats in all competitions, during which they exited the Southern League Challenge Cup and all but relinquished their hopes of securing a place in the end of season promotion play-offs.
Central to that run of poor form was the loss of their top scorer Leighton Thomas to a hamstring injury. An average of 0.8 goals per game over the course of those five defeats – having overtaken the Stags as the league’s most prolific team after that win at Totton – tells the story of just how much the marksman’s absence affected them. The ship was steadied with a 3-2 home win over bottom club Barnstaple Town, thanks to Jack Ball’s 88th-minute winner, and an impressive 4-1 away win at Evesham United, in which Edward Butcher weighed in with a hat-trick.
But two goals from Matthew Buchan, the Stag-slaying Bideford AFC centre-forward, took the Robins to a 2-1 victory at Paulton’s First4Pools Stadium on Saturday 05 February, which kickstarted another run of five games without a win that Butcher finally brought to a conclusion this Tuesday night by scoring the only goal of the game to beat Sholing.
One cause for optimism during that run was the return to action of Leighton Thomas, who appears to have made a full recovery if his five goals in three matches – all of them draws – are anything to judge by, leaving him top of the division’s goalscoring charts on 25 league goals, five ahead of Hisham Kasimu.
There is little to report concerning Paulton’s progress in cup competitions this season. Their FA Cup campaign was over as soon as it began due to a 3-1 elimination at the hands of Frome Town, and Larkhall Athletic put paid to their challenge in the Buildbase FA Trophy with a comprehensive 5-1 beating on Paulton’s own ground at the 3rd Round Qualifying stage. Their interest in the Somerset Premier Cup was ended by lower league opponents Odd Down FC, who triumphed in a penalty shoot-out after a 1-1 draw. They did rather better in the Southern League Challenge Cup, thrashing the Southern Premier South’s bottom club Wimborne Town 6-1 at their New Cuthbury ground before also ending Lymington Town’s interest in the competition with a penalty shoot-out victory. But, despite taking a 4th-minute lead at Taunton Town in the Quarter-Finals, the Peacocks hit back to win 4-1.
The Rovers strengthened their ranks last week with the signing of 21-year-old Josiah Dunstan from Mangotsfield United. The 6’3” central defender, who can also operate in midfield, has played in the United States for Georgia Southern Eagles and also lists Taunton Town, Hungerford Town, Wick FC (from Bristol), Dorchester Town and Swindon Supermarine among his former clubs.
PAULTON ROVERS: LAST 5 MATCHES – All Competitions
Sat 26 Feb Slimbridge . A Southern League Div.1 South D 3-3
Sat 05 Mar Winchester City A Southern League Div.1 South D 2-2
Sat 19 Mar Lymington Town H Southern League Div.1 South D 2-2
Sat 26 Mar Melksham Town A Southern League Cup L 0-1
Wed 30 Mar Sholing H Southern League Div.1 South W 1-0
AFC TOTTON vs PAULTON ROVERS – Previous Meetings
There have been 15 meetings between these two teams since the 2005/06 season. The Stags have won 7, Rovers have won 4 times and there have been 4 draws.
The biggest win in that sequence was the 2010/11 season 5-1 AFC Totton home win, courtesy of a Michael Charles hat-trick and additional goals from Mike Gosney and Steffen Brown – all three of whom also scored in the famous 8-1 thrashing of Bradford Park Avenue in the FA Cup during the same campaign. The match was also notable for being the Stags’ very first home match in our new stadium, after the move from Testwood Park.
Another memorable encounter was a five-goal thriller in appalling weather conditions at Paulton in March 2010. The 10-men Rovers pegged the Stags back twice to go in level at 2-2 at half-time, before our very own Brett Williams raced clear in the 66th minute to calmly slot the winner for a 3-2 Totton win.
READY, FREDDIE, GO: Yellow-booted midfielder Freddie Read runs at the Paulton Rovers defence during the Stags' 2-4 home defeat on 11 December, 2021.
At the Snows Stadium on Saturday 11 December 2021, Jack Ball’s 9th-minute opener was cancelled out within a minute by Hisham Kasimu. A Harry Medway own goal restored the visitors’ lead before half-time but a Callum Baughan piledriver levelled the scores again before the hour. Will Harvey put the Rovers in front for a third time in the 76th-minute and a late fourth from fellow substitute Nathan Brown confirmed a deserved win for Paulton.
By Ben Rochey-Adams and Malcolm Tombs, Historian
Image courtesy of Craig Hobbs Photography
Kit illustrations courtesy of Bolid74
