AFC Totton
Images courtesy of Fin Hall
By Josh Cole
Attendance: 3433 inc 74 away
A hard-fought battle at Plainmoor ends with the home side taking all three points under the lights.
The Gulls were eager to please the home crowd and stepped right onto the front foot looking to attack Totton in wide areas.
In the 7th minute, Ryan Gosney was called into action to punch away a dangerous ball into the box, commanding his area well.
Seven minutes later, Totton marauded forward spearheaded by Ashley Clarke, and he crossed for Tony Lee who cushioned his header for Scott Rendell to fire a volley at the ‘keeper.
Straight up the other end, Torquay would go one up, the ever-dangerous Dylan Morgan firing onto the near post from just outside the box, beating Gosney with pure power.
Torquay continued to dominate the ball and put real pressure on the visitors, who refused to buckle.
On the half hour mark, it was a set piece which put The Stags back level.
The corner came in deep towards Tyler Cordner and he headed it towards the goal. It was cleared off the line and the rebound fell to Christie Ward and somehow, the heroics from the home side’s defence they managed to scramble it off the line.
However, Tony Lee, jostling for position with three opposing players muscled his way into the six-yard box to head into the roof of the net and level proceedings.
Just a minute later, a Torquay corner of their own provided a goal, it was an inswinger, towards the near post which was sliced towards his own goal by Christos Batzelis and it flew past Gosney to re-establish their lead.
At half-time the game was 2-1, Totton pressing in the last five minutes of the half.
This would continue into the second half with attacking and physical changes made by both sides to flip the game in their favour.
Chances came for AFC Totton but they went, with the closest being Lee’s effort from outside the box just went whiskers wide of the near post.
In the 71st minute, Matt Jay with his first start of the season in Yellow scored, a vicious deflection off Cordner just wrong-sighted Gosney and the ball went in.
A valiant effort from Totton to continue on the front foot but Torquay’s experience matched with the noise from the crowd propelled them to victory despite the pressure from the away side.
AFC Totton XI: 13. Ryan Gosney, 2. Joe Oastler, 7. Ashley Clarke (Luke Hallett 45'), 9. Scott Rendell (C) (Hisham Kasimu 77'), 10. Tony Lee (Dec Rose 84'), 19. Christie Ward, 20. Ryan Jackson, 21. Christos Batzelis, 23. Ralph Vigrass (Malachi Linton 45'), 26. Tyler Cordner, 27. Craig Tanner.
Unused subs: 1. Max Evans & 22. Luke Bennett
