AFC Totton
STAGS PUNISHED EARLY ON BY PLAY OFF CHASING SUPERMARINE
AFC Totton 1-2 Swindon Supermarine
After 2 away games in the past week, The Stags were back in action at a bitterly cold Testwood Stadium last night as they hosted Swindon Supermarine. Stags boss Louis Langdown welcomed back Nathaniel Sherborne to the squad after recent injury – as well as Marley Ridge, now available having been called back to Havant & Waterlooville FC at the weekend.
The game got underway with the visitors coming straight out of the traps and looking to attack and get at Totton. They were immediately rewarded, when a low cross from the left was fired home by Joe SELMAN to open the scoring with just 2 minutes on the clock. After this rude awakening, The Stags then attempted to launch a few attacks of their own, with the most notable being Mike Gosney’s run through the ‘Marine defence, skipping past his man, before delivering a promising ball across the six-yard box, but unfortunately there were no blue shirts on hand to turn the ball home.
As Totton went on the hunt for an equalizer, things took a turn for the worst, as the visitors added their 2nd. With 19 minutes on the clock, a nice passing move involving 4/5 ‘Marine players eventually wound up with a tidy finish by Joe SHEPHERD, who drove his shot low and hard at the near post and beyond Stags loanee keeper Charlie Searle.
Again, The Stags attempted to pick themselves up and were perhaps unlucky not to have halved the deficit before the break. Firstly, Totton talisman Gosney again broke through the visitor’s backline with a menacing run, but his low, left-footed shot went a foot wide of the right-hand post. It was Gosney who was also involved in the next attack, that saw Nick Watts and then Dan Munday hit the upright. Gosney had played a cute ball out towards Watts, who found a yard and shot left-footed towards goal, only to see his effort rebound off the post. It then looked as though Dan Munday would be able to steer the rebound home, however, he suffered the same fate as Watts, in watching his attempt hit the post before going out for a goal kick. As it was, Swindon Supermarine managed to see out the 1st half, 2 goals to the good. HT 0-2
The second half was perhaps fairly predictable, with Supermarine taking the sting out of the game, starving The Stags of possession and occasionally reminding Totton that they may add a 3rd. However, Ben Cooper was replaced by debutant Marley Ridge just before the hour mark as Louis Langdown tried to shake things up for Totton. Making a decent impact on the game, it was Ridge who was flagged offside after being played in behind the Swindon defence in a threatening move.
Again, 15 minutes from time, Ridge was causing problems for Supermarine and in particular Connor Johns. After a seemingly innocuous looking back pass, Ridge put pressure on Johns who scuffed his clearance straight to Ridge, but unfortunately he hit a tame effort straight back into the arms of a grateful Johns. The ever hard working Dan Munday was then replaced by Stags stalwart Nathaniel Sherborne, who was greeted warmly by the Totton faithful, having been absent for a number of weeks.
Totton certainly finished the game strongly. Gosney, determined to leave his mark on the game was eventually able to do so, in the 90th minute from a trademark free kick. After Sherborne, had been bundled over on the edge of the area, Gosney stepped up and stroked the ball home from 20 yards, beyond the Johns who had dived to his left and into the corner of the net, a fine strike that not many keepers would have kept out. With that, Supermarine barely had to restart, before the referee brought proceedings to a close on a freezing cold night at Testwood Stadium. FT 1-2
AFC Totton Line-up: Searle, York, Wilde, Williams, Allen (c), Oliver, Watts, Gunson, Munday**, Gosney, Cooper*.
Subs: Hibberd, Ridge*, Sherborne**, Roberts.
