AFC Totton
SOUTHERN LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION SOUTH | Matchday#16
Tuesday 03 December 2024 | Snows Stadium, Salisbury Road, Totton | Att: 1,177
STAGS CLIMB TO SECOND WITH COMFORTABLE HOME WIN OVER 10-MAN CURFEWS
AFC TOTTON 3
Scott Rendell 16mins, 44mins (pen);
Charlie Austin 88mins
CHERTSEY TOWN 0
TAKING FULL ADVANTAGE of their opponents going down to 10-men midway through the first half, AFC Totton climbed into second place in the Southern League Premier Division South table with a comfortable home win over Chertsey Town.
Manager Jimmy Ball made only one change from the side that beat Swindon Supermarine at the weekend, restoring captain Scott Rendell to the starting line-up for the first time since he was injured in the Isuzu FA Trophy tie at home to Merthyr Town in early-October. Ethan Taylor returned from suspension to be named on the bench.
Both teams have FA Trophy Third Round ties coming up at the weekend, and it may have been with their home tie against National League side Dagenham & Redbridge in mind that Chertsey boss Mark Harper chose to name striker Jack Mazzone - currently the division’s second-top scorer and the hat-trick hero in The Curfews’ 3-2 victory over Taunton Town, last Saturday - among his substitutes.
AFC TOTTON: 13. Ryan GOSNEY; 2. Joe OASTLER (Capt.); 5. Charlie KENNEDY; 8. Adam TOMASSO; 9. Scott RENDELL; 11. Charlie AUSTIN; 12. Luke HALLETT: 15. Roddy COLLINS; 18. Tony LEE; 19. Tom BLAIR; 20. Tega AGBERHIERE. Substitutes: 3. Ben JEFFORD; 6. Sam MAGRI; 7. Toby STEPHENS; 10. Ethan TAYLOR; 16. Luke BENNETT. Substitutions: BENNETT for LEE (80mins); STEPHENS for BLAIR (80mins); TAYLOR for AGBERHIERE (80mins); MAGRI for HALLETT (89mins). Yellow Cards: None.
CHERTSEY TOWN: 1. Nicholas JUPP; 2. Isaac OLORUNFEMI; 3. Bernard TAYLOR; 4. Luke ROBERTSON (Capt.); 5. Eoin CASEY; 6. Callum DUFFY; 7. Louis DEGAND: 8. Louis BIRCH; 10. Tobias LITTLE; 11. Daniel ROWE; 12. Lewis FLATMAN. Substitutes: 9. Jack MAZZONE; 19. Luke NEVIILE; 15. Oliver KNIGHT; 16. Alex FISHER; 13. Jack SMITH. Substitutions: FISHER for ROWE (28mins); NEVILLE for ROBERTSON (39mins); KNIGHT for BIRCH (46mins). Yellow Cards: DUFFY (Foul). Red Card: CASEY (Professional Foul - Last Man).
EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE...: Charlie Kennedy takes possession for AFC Totton under the watchful eye of his manager, Jimmy Ball.
Chertsey Town wore their second kit of all hi-vis yellow with black sleeves, and two vertical black lines running down the middle of the shirt. Totton were turned out in their usual home kit of all-Royal blue with white trim.
Tony Lee fired the first shot in anger, challenging successfully for a high ball on the left flank to advance infield and aim a low effort towards the near bottom corner, to which Chertsey goalkeeper Nicholas Jupp got down quickly to turn past the post; Totton didn’t capitalise from the subsequent corner.
Lee had an even better chance in the third minute, when Joe Oastler’s long diagonal pass from the right of Totton’s defence was flicked on by Scott Rendell for Tega Agberhiere to gather in the advance left-wing corner. He checked back and rolled the ball to Roddy Collins, whose floated cross picked out the unmarked striker about 12 yards out; he made a good connection with his header but steered the ball narrowly wide of the near post.
Another knockdown from Rendell put Charlie Austin into a shooting position but a defender managed to block the shot at source. Then, Adam Tomasso fed Tom Blair on the Totton right, to cut infield and drive a low left-footed shot from the edge of the area, which Jupp gathered.
It took 10 minutes for the visitors to mount their first attacking foray, with Tobias Little and Isaac Olorunfemi combining down their right wing before a low, curled cross was intercepted by Ryan Gosney at his near post. Then at the other end, a defender’s miss-kick landed kindly enough for Jupp to make a simple catch, after Rendell had tried to feed the ball into the Chertsey box, once more.
MIDFIELD GENERAL: Former Chesham United captain Roddy Collins takes control in the middle of the park for The Stags.
Rendell got back to dismantle an initially promising Chertsey attack, and set Totton away on the counter with Austin spreading the play wide right for Blair to race away and fire an angled shot across goal; it was both high and wide but not by much.
Totton had dominated the opening exchanges and it was no surprise when they took the lead on 16 minutes. As The Stags raided down the right from a quick pass out of defence, Blair pulled wide and played a back-heel that allowed Austin to attack the byline and direct a low cross into the six-yard box; Scott RENDELL got ahead of his marker to flick the ball across Jupp and inside the far corner.
Lee had the ball in the net within a minute of the restart but an offside flag denied him a goal. Chertsey’s Callum Duffy was then shown the yellow card for pulling down Blair, as the winger was about to enter the penalty area from the right edge. With players rapidly changing positions in the box to confuse the Chertsey defence, the free-kick was rolled towards the penalty spot where Austin met it with a firm strike that struck a yellow shirt. The rebound was lifted back into the box and headed wide.
Even with eleven men, Chertsey were already camped in their own half of the pitch. Then on 25 minutes, things went from bad to worse for Mark Harper’s team when Eoin Casey was sent-off for a so-called professional foul against Tony Lee. Chertsey will claim that Lee had been in an offside position when Casey cut-out the pass that was intended to send the striker through for a clear run on goal. The match officials will say at that point, there is a new phase of play and since Casey had the ball, Lee was no longer deemed to be offside even though he then ran from behind Casey to wrestle possession from the defender. He did so successfully enough for Casey to throw him to the ground, thereby denying a potential goalscoring opportunity while acting as the last defender.
Jimmy Ball responded to the dismissal by telling his players to move the ball quicker and with more urgency, and it was clear to see that Totton’s wide men were hugging the touchlines to make use of the full width of the pitch. Harper withdrew forward Daniel Rowe and sent on an extra defender in the shape of Alex Fisher.
In addition to their numerical disadvantage, Collins’ industrious in midfield served to pen Chertsey back into their own half. And the visitors were forced to make a second change when their captain Luke Robertson came off worse for ware from Tomasso’s challenge. Luke Neville replaced him, with six minutes to go before half-time.
GET IN: Back in the team after injury, Stags skipper Scott Rendell celebrates scoring his second goal from the penalty spot against Chertsey Town.
Totton comfortably bossed possession and probed for a way in to press home their advantage. Lee controlled a cross on his chest and shot at the ‘keeper but he was offside, anyway. Then, on the stroke of the interval, Tomasso’s pass into the inside-right channel had Lee scampering in behind Callum Duffy, who made the fatal mistake of putting his hand on the striker’s back. Lee went down and the referee awarded a penalty-kick; Scott RENDELL was calmness personified as he doubled The Stags lead from the spot.
HALF-TIME: AFC TOTTON 2-0 CHERTSEY TOWN
Chertsey Town made their third substitution of the game at the start of the second half, with Oliver Knight coming in place of Louis Birch. Totton were quickly on the front foot, again, and won a corner on the right. Blair crossed high to the far side where Oastler got up well to head at goal; Rendell challenged Jupp but was deemed to have pushed the ‘keeper.
Agberhiere got forward on the left and pulled back for Kennedy to shoot, hitting a defender. Blair gathered on the right and fed the ball back into the box, where Austin also saw his effort charged down, before a scrambling Chertsey defence hooked the ball away. Then, Blair played in a low cross from the right and Kennedy managed to side-step the goalkeeper before seeing his finish turfed off the line. Tomasso gathered on the edge of the area and squared for Agberhiere, whose shot hit another yellow shirt.
PIN-POINT DELIVERY: The Chertsey Town defence struggled to contain Totton winger Tom Blair.
Kennedy’s pass sent Blair to the right-wing byline, and his cross was met with a header from Lee, forcing Jupp to tip over the crossbar. The corner was taken short; Blair fed the ball in and Rendell had a stab at completing his hat-trick, but Chertsey had enough players back to smother the chance.
Lee tried a long shot from a central position, which deflected for a corner on the right. Blair picked out Oastler, again, and his header fell to Collins, who became the next Totton player to have a shot charged down by a Chertsey defender. Then just past the hour mark, Lee had to stretch to reach Blair’s cross and couldn’t keep his effort down.
It was all one-way traffic. Lee’s cross from the right resulted in another Totton corner. Oastler was there again, this time heading just wide with a powerful connection from Blair’s delivery. When Chertsey did go forward and win a rare corner on their left, Tomasso cleared the cross at the near post, much to the annoyance of Mark Harper in the Away team dug-out.
Tomasso further demonstrated his lack of sympathy for Chertsey’s plight by putting in a strong tackle in the centre-circle to clamp down on The Curfews’ next attempt to get forward. Then, Collins turned away from a challenge in the middle of the park before threading a through-ball for Lee to run onto. He poked it on for Austin near the penalty spot, but he had to stretch for it and rather scuffed his effort straight at Jupp.
Austin should have extended Totton’s lead on 73 minutes, when Lee dummied Blair’s curled cross from the right touchline, deceiving Jupp into missing the ball and allowing it to fall to the former Southampton man towards the left of the six-yard box. Austin chested it down and went to apply the finish, but some combination of Jupp and one of his defenders managed to get something in the way to limit the deficit to two goals. Then, Austin had a goal ruled out for offside from another Blair delivery.
Jupp raced out of his goal to beat Blair to Kennedy’s through-ball into the inside-right channel. Then, Blair had a well-struck shot cannon off a defender for another corner. This time, his cross came off a defender and fell to Rendell, who couldn’t shuffle his feet quickly enough and the chance went begging.
Jimmy Ball made three changes at once, with 10 minutes to go. Ethan Taylor, Toby Stephens and Luke Bennett all entered the fray, with Tega Agberhiere, Tom Blair and Tony Lee exiting the scene.
Taylor introduced himself to the Chertsey defence by dribbling at them from the left. He ran into a defender and Collins picked up the loose ball to force a corner. Luke Bennett’s cross was met with a firm header by Luke Hallett, which Jupp parried and one of his defenders cleared.
LORD OF THE SKIES: Luke Hallett doing what Luke Hallett does.
Totton deserved a third goal and they got it with two minutes of normal time remaining. Tomasso received the ball midway inside the Chertsey half and pushed it wide to the left for Taylor, who played a square pass infield to Kennedy, near the D on the edge of the visitors’ box. Bennett made an overlapping run at inside-right, and when Kennedy rolled the ball into his path, his low curling cross flashed in front of Jupp and was turned in at the far post by the sliding figure of Charlie AUSTIN.
Sam Magri made a late cameo appearance in place of Luke Hallett, before notice was given of two minutes of stoppage time. Toby Stephens forced Jupp into making a save at his near post with a low drive from the Totton left, shortly before the final whistle.
View the full GALLERY from AFC Totton 3-0 Chertsey Town
Watch JIMMY BALL’S Post-Match Interview
Watch SCOTT RENDELL’S Post-Match Interview
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Next Up: BIGGLESWADE TOWN vs AFC TOTTON
Isuzu FA Trophy | Third Round | Langford Road, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire SG18 9JT | Saturday 07 December 2024 | Kick-Off 3:00pm
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By Ben Rochey-Adams
Images courtesy of Sayers Sports Photography
