SOUTHERN LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION SOUTH | Matchday#15
Saturday 30 November 2024 | Snows Stadium, Totton | Att: 1,287

TEN-MAN TOTTON HOLD ON TO WIN DESPITE BIZARRE BENNETT DISMISSAL

AFC TOTTON                                    2
Charlie Austin 8mins
Tom Blair 14mins

SWINDON SUPERMARINE       1
David Sims-Burgess 82mins

AFC TOTTON HELD ON TO WIN their home league match against an in-form Swindon Supermarine, despite losing full-back Luke Bennett to a controversial second yellow card midway through the second half.

Having been cup-tied for the trip to Lewes, and the postponement of the away game at Merthyr Town, Ryan Gosney returned for only his second AFC Totton outing despite signing for the club a month ago. Luke Bennett and Tega Agberhiere both returned to the side to fill the full-back berths, allowing Charlie Kennedy to move back into midfield. Ethan Taylor was suspended for accumulated yellow cards.

AFC TOTTON: 13. Ryan GOSNEY; 2. Joe OASTLER (Capt.) 5. Charlie KENNEDY; 8. Adam TOMASSO; 11. Charlie AUSTIN; 12. Luke HALLETT; 15. Roddy COLLINS; 16. Luke BENNETT; 18. Tony LEE; 19. Tom BLAIR; 20. Tega AGBERHIERE. Substitutes: 3. Ben JEFFORD; 4. Owen PELHAM; 6. Sam MAGRI; 7. Toby STEPHENS; 9. Scott RENDELL. Substitutions: RENDELL for BLAIR (70mins); STEPHENS for AUSTIN (78mins); JEFFORD for LEE (85mins). Yellow Cards: BLAIR (Foul); AGBERHIERE (Foul); HALLETT (Timewasting). Red Card: BENNETT (Second Yellow Card).

SWINDON SUPERMARINE: 1. Daniel BRABHAM; 2. Sam TURL; 3. Ryan CAMPBELL (Capt.); 4. Jake LEE; 20. Nicholas PEARE; 6. Anton DWORZAK; 7. Zackariah KOTIWCA; 8. Gabriel REIVERS; 9. Harry WILLIAMS; 10. Michael ELIAS-FERNANDES; 11. Liban IBRAHIM. Substitutes: 12. James EDGE; 14. Olivr MEHEW; 15. Liam ANGEL; 16. David SIMS-BURGESS; 17. Lucas VINE. Substitutions: MEHEW for REIVERS (46mins); SIMS-BURGESS for IBRAHIM (64mins); VINE for DWORZAK (81mins). Yellow Cards: WILLIAMS (Foul); ELIAS-FERNANDES (Dissent).

Neat footwork by Austin in the second minute resulted in a Totton corner on their right. Blair’s cross was met by Oastler, who headed the ball against a defender’s head with the goalkeeper rooted to the spot, before a ricochet took the ball out for a goal kick.

Kennedy missed his kick but Hallett was quick to tidy up before Supermarine could take advantage. Then, Lee flicked on Gosney’s long kick down the middle of the pitch for Blair to run onto and earn another corner; Totton again managed to steer a header on-target but a push on a defender handed Swindon a free-kick.

MY BALL!: Adam Tomasso wins the ball in midfield for AFC Totton during their Southern League Premier Division South encounter at home to Swindon Supermarine.

Bennett charged forward from half-way and laid the ball off to Austin but then got in the way of the striker’s shot, the ball nicking off his heel and falling kindly for Daneil Brabham in the visitors’ goal. Swindon launched a counter, which Oastler halted with a well-timed sliding tackle. The visitors were quick to regain possession, and midfielder Liban Ibrahim was able to cut in from the left and shoot narrowly past the near post.

Totton took the lead in the eighth minute. Bennett exploited space on the right from a long kick, and won a corner when his cross was deflected wide. Blair crossed high to the far post and Oastler leapt to head at goal. The ball dropped to Charlie AUSTIN, who shuffled the ball between his left and right feet before poking it past Brabham.

Swindon responded by coming forward more aggressively, but a promising attack was undone by an offside flag. Sam Turl and Anton Dworzak combined on their right to advance the Supermarine cause; Oastler conceded a corner, which Tomasso headed away at the near post. Blair controlled it midway inside his own half, switched the play to Austin on the right and then raced forward to complete a one-two, culminating in Tom BLAIR being slipped in behind the defence to strike the ball to the goalkeeper’s left and into the middle of the goal to double AFC Totton’s lead.

ON-TARGET: Stags winger Tom Blair scored his third goal of the season to double Totton's lead.

Bennett did well to dispossess Ibrahim, as he again threatened from the Swindon left. Then, Oastler intervened to prevent Gabriel Reivers latching onto a through-ball to inside-right from where he would have had a free shot at Gosney’s goal.

Lee picked up a loose ball near the centre-circle and found Blair on the right, before receiving it back to feet in the middle. With defenders standing off him, Lee strode forward until he was 20 yards out, and fired a shot that clipped off a defender for a right-wing corner. Oastler again met Blair’s cross but headed into Brabham’s arms.

Michael Elias-Fernandes fired over the Totton crossbar, after chopping infield from the left flank to set himself up on his right foot. Then, Agberhiere was shown the yellow card for tugging back an opponent to disrupt a Swindon counter-attack. From the free-kick, Kennedy headed the ball away and Tomasso helped it on its way; Lee was close to getting a free run on goal when the last defender appeared to misjudge the bounce of the ball but then gathered it at the second attempt.

Swindon thought they should have had a penalty when Elias-Fernandes went down under Agberhiere’s challenge; the referee was unimpressed. Collins won the ball, setting up a three-on-one attack for the home side, until Austin strayed offside.

Gosney had to keep his wits about him to tip over an ambitious 30-yard effort from Dworzk. Just before the break, Elias-Fernandes tried to dance his way through three Totton defenders; he was making good progress but eventually ran out of steam and his shot lacked power.

HALF-TIME: AFC TOTTON 2-0 SWINDON SUPERMARINE

Totton got the game back underway, but Swindon fashioned the first clear chance of the second half. Elias-Fernandes struck a cross-field pass to the right where substitute Oliver Mehew beat Agberhiere to race through on goal. Gosney came out to narrow the angle and made an important save with his feet to keep The Stags’ two-goal lead in tact.

OPPORTUNE MOMENT: Charlie Austin laying down in front of two of the club's prominent sponsors - you can't buy that kind of publicity... well, you can, obviously. They did!

Agberhiere was fortunate to avoid a second yellow card for a foul near half-way; Swindon’s Harry Williams appeared to be of the same opinion and talked himself into a booking for voicing his dissent too vehemently.

Gosney pushed another shot over his bar, this time to deny Turl’s effort from the edge of the area. The corner was knocked down but Bennett was on-hand to kick it clear. Then, Bennett was booked for a late challenge that left Swindon captain Ryan Campball crying out in pain for as long as it took for the referee to produce the card, then the left-back was suddenly back on his feet and ready to continue.

Bennett was shown a second yellow card on 63 minutes, in bizarre circumstances. Collins fed Blair on the left, and his cross was initially cleared. Bennett intercepted and tried to dribble between two defenders; with challenges coming in from left and right, Bennett knocked the ball back-and-forth between both feet as he crossed the white line into the penalty area. He went down under the challenge coming in from his left; when the referee’s whistle sounded, Totton fans thought their team had been awarded a penalty. But then the referee produced a yellow card for Bennett for simulation, prompting the full-back to put his head in his hands in sheer disbelief.

YOU BE THE REF: According to the senior match official, this was a dive by Luke Bennett, worthy of a second booking and, therefore, a red card and a suspension.

Hallett was booked for timewasting. Swindon had the ball in Totton’s net in the 70th minute, when a shot from a free-kick struck the defensive wall and was turned in from the rebound — but an offside flag ruled the goal out. There were then two hand-ball shouts against Swindon in quick succession, the second of which was the stronger call and was also inside the penalty area; again, the referee turned a blind eye.

Totton began to fall back, trying to protect their two-goal lead, and consequnelty, Swindon began to enjoy more of the possession. Midfielder Toby Stephens made his AFC Totton debut as a 79th minute substitute for Austin.

Several attempts to advance the ball into the Totton penalty area had been repelled before Swindon eventually found their way through, with eight minutes to go. Tricky footwork from Elias-Fernandes on the left had players lining up in a crowded box. When the ball came in, Totton couldn’t lay a glove on it and David SIMS-BURGESS was able to fire high into the net from close range to give the visitors a glimmer of hope.

Sims-Burgess pulled a save out of Gosney with a low, angled shot from the right, as the visitors threw everything forward in search of an equaliser. Ben Jefford then came on the shore up the Totton defence, with Lee making way.

Stephens had half a chance to put the result beyond doubt when he burst free into the inside-left channel from Rendell’s lay-off, but Brabham beat him to the ball. At the other end, Elias-Fernandes fired wide of the left-hand post. Then, Jefford got forward to find Stephens with a low cross, but the midfielder fired over from 18 yards.

During five minutes of injury-time, Swindon knocked on the door but Totton kept their defensive discipline to limit their opponents to only half-chances. Elias-Fernandes tried a speculative shot from 30 yards, which Gosney dealt with. The last chance fell to substitute Lucas Vine, who curled his shot wide from 35 yards, shortly before the final whistle.

View the full GALLERY from AFC Totton 2-1 Swindon Supermarine

Watch JIMMY BALL'S Post-Match Interview

Watch LUKE HALLETT'S Post-Match Interview

By Ben Rochey-Adams

Images courtesy of Harvey Gerring