AFC Totton
THE LATEST ADDITION to the posse of sharp-shooters who have recently reached a statistically significant first team appearances milestone for AFC Totton is striker Tony Lee, who recently racked up his 100th Stags game.
Now in his third spell with the club, Tony began his football journey with Eastleigh before coming to Testwood Stadium, as it was then known, as a loanee in 2015.
He bounced around from one club to another in the Wessex region for a couple of years, before then-Stags boss Louis Langdown brought him back to make 32 appearances and contribute 18 goals during the 2017/18 campaign.
Although he sebsequently resumed his tour of local football clubs with short spells at the likes of Weymouth, Wimborne Town and Gosport Borough, Tony really made his mark as a Poole Town striker under the management of Tom Killick, for whom he had struck 25 goals in just 21 matches in the first half of the 2021/22 season before a broken collarbone put him out of action for six weeks; he returned before the end of the campaign to take his goals tally for the season to 36.
Southend United, Yeovil Town and Torquay United were all keeping tabs on his progress by then, according to reports in the Bournemouth Daily Echo.
In 2022/23, Tony’s 27 goals — including four in an emphatic 6-1 away win at Dorchester Town — fired The Dolphins into the Southern League Premier Division South’s Promotion Play-Offs, and he followed that with 19 more goals for the Tatnam Ground club in the first half of the 2023/24 season, before returning to AFC Totton in January 2024.
Charlie Austin (left) presents fellow striker Tony Lee with a silver salver to mark his 100th first team appearance for AFC Totton, ahead of the Play-Off semi-final against Dorchester Town.
Tony’s third Stags debut came in the 1-0 away win at Hayes & Yeading United on Saturday 17 February 2024, and just 11 days later he reopened his AFC Totton goalscoring account with two goals in a 4-4 home draw with Dorchester.
A hat-trick against Tiverton Town and two goals in the next game against Bracknell Town, plus one each in both the Play-Off semi-final against Bracknell and the ultimately ill-fated final with Salisbury, contributed to a total of 15 goals in just 18 starts in all competitions.
And despite an intensified competition for places in the AFC Totton frontline following the summer arrival of the ex-Saints striker Charlie Austin and the continuing effectiveness of the evergreen Scott Rendell, Tony’s immense ability to finish when it matters has seen him emerge as The Stags’ top scorer for the current 2024/25 season, with 24 goals under his belt — and one very important game still to go.
Continuing his one-man fued with Dorchester, the two goals Tony struck in the latter stages of that surreal Play-Off semi-final in midweek took his recent total to four goals in three starts, and five in his last five.
After helping to claw The Stags into today’s Promotion Play-Off final, Tony told Joshua Cole of AFC Totton TV:
“It makes a massive difference having the home advantage for the final. Our fans really kicked us on at the end [of the semi-final], and they played their part in all four of our goals.
“We came in at half-time with nothing to lose — the second half was always going to be a one-way storm, and I think we did deserve it in the end.”
By Ben Rochey-Adams
Image courtesy of Jake Argent
