AFC Totton
GOALLESS DRAWS AT BASINGSTOKE TOWN rarely live long in the memory but the recent stalemate with The Dragons at the Winklebury Sports Complex marked a major milestone in the AFC Totton career of Ethan Taylor.
Named in the starting line-up for the Good Friday trip to North Hampshire, the left-wing wizard chalked up his 200th AFC Totton appearance in all competitions, a feat for which he was honoured with the presentation of a silver salver from Honorary Life President Paul Maiden before the subsequent Easter Monday win at home to Winchester City.
The 22-year-old Taylor – a former Southampton Academy player who also had spells with Sholing, Team Solent and Gosport Borough in his youth – joined AFC Totton in June 2021, and played under managers Glenn Howes and Dan Sackman prior to the arrival of Jimmy Ball in March 2022.
He was a member of the team that lifted the Southampton Senior Cup by beating Folland Sports at St. Mary’s Stadium in May 2022, and he also scored and set-up both of Scott Rendell’s goals in the 3-0 defeat of Sholing in the final of the same competition the following year. That success completed a trophy treble for The Stags in 2022/23, alongside winning the Southern League Division One South title and the Champion of Champions Super Cup, in which Taylor bagged both goals in a 2-1 win against Berkhamsted at Chesham United’s Meadow ground under the shadow of the picturesque Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire.
A regular contributor of goals and assists throughout his time with the club, whether operating from the left, right or through the centre, Taylor contributed 16 goals in all competitions last season, and – ahead of the final regular league game of 2024/25 at Frome Town and Totton’s involvement in the end of season Promotion Play-Offs – his total for this term stands at 12, taking his current club total to 80 goals.
That’s 22 more than his father James Taylor, a striker in his day, scored for the club in the early 2000s. Ethan’s younger brother Leo Taylor is a member of Harry Brookwell’s Under-23 squad, and both players were on-target when AFC Totton made it three-in-a-row Southampton Senior Cup titles with a 4-1 win over Hythe & Dibden in the final at the Snows Stadium, last season.
AFC Totton's Hon. Life President Paul Maiden presents Ethan Taylor with an award to mark his 200th first team appearance for The Stags.
Speaking after the recent draw at Basingstoke, Ethan expressed his pride at reaching the 200-games mark, and made it clear where his focus is for the final weeks of the current campaign:
“I’ve always wanted to play football at the highest level that I can, and I feel that AFC Totton has given me that opportunity. We’ve come up a division during my time with the club, and we’re good enough to do so again, if we keep doing things the right way and playing to our strengths. I think we’re a stronger squad than we were this time last season, and we’ve got a great management team in place. Even though we weren’t able to beat Merthyr to the title, we’ve still got a very good chance of making this a successful season – and that’s what we’re all aiming to do.”
Asked to identify which games of his double-century stand out in his memory, he surprisingly opts for last season’s Play-Off final defeat to Salisbury.
“It was the wrong result, obviously, but it was a big game for me personally. I thought I had a good game and I scored the goal that took it to penalties. It didn’t work out on the night, but hopefully we’ll go one better this time around.
“As far as this season goes, I think the 5-1 home win over Taunton (Tuesday 21 October 2024), when I scored two, was my best performance of the season so far, and one of our best as a team.”
Prompted to confess who’ll be getting his nod for the Players’ Player of the Year award, Ethan singles out defender Joe Oastler as the team’s most consistent performer throughout the course of the season, and the young player who has impressed him most is his long-standing friend and former Team Solent teammate, Luke Bennett.
While the trip to Frome Town is something of a dead rubber, with The Robins already condemned to relegation, there are potentially two very important games remaining for AFC Totton in 2024/25, and a fit and firing Ethan Taylor producing the goods will give The Stags an excellent chance of climbing up to Step 2 for the new season ahead.
By Ben Rochey-Adams
Statistics courtesy of Malcolm Tombs (Club Historian)
Image courtesy of Harvey Gerring
