AFC Totton
SOUTHERN LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION SOUTH | MATCHDAY#13
Tuesday 21 October 2024 | Snows Stadium, Salisbury Road, Totton | Att: 1,289
TENACIOUS TOTTON TEART TAUNTON TOWN TO TATTERS
AFC TOTTON 5
Tony Lee 16mins; Ethan Taylor 50mins, 55mins;
Sam Magri 58mins; Ashley Clarke 81mins
TAUNTON TOWN 1
Oliver Woodhouse 81mins
AFC TOTTON PRODUCED ARGUABLY their best display of the season so far to thrash Taunton Town 5-1 in their Southern League Premier Division South encounter amid the evening fog of the Snows Stadium.
Goals from Tony Lee, two from Ethan Taylor – the first a stunning volley – a Sam Magri header, and a cameo strike from sub Ash Clarke packed The Peacocks off back to Somerset with their tails tucked firmly between their legs, and lifted The Stags up to second place in the league table.
AFC TOTTON: 13. Joshua GOULD; 2. Joe OASTLER (Capt.); 6. Sam MAGRI; 8. Adam TOMASSO; 10. Ethan TAYLOR; 11. Charlie AUSTIN; 15. Roddy COLLINS; 16. Luke BENNETT; 18. Tony LEE; 19. Tom BLAIR; 20. Tega AGBERHIERE. Substitutes: 5. Charlie KENNEDY; 7. Ashley CLARKE; 9. Scott RENDELL; 12. Luke HALLETT; 17. Declan ROSE. Substitutions: ROSE for BENNETT (6mins); KENNEDY for COLLINS (75mins); HALLETT for BLAIR (75mins); CLARKE for TAYLOR (75mins); RENDELL for LEE (87mins). Yellow Cards: CLARKE (Delaying Restart); COLLINS (Foul).
TAUNTON TOWN: 1. Adam PARKES; 2. Eddie JONES; 5. Oliver WOODHOUSE; 6. Toby DOWN; 7. Tom PURRINGTON; 8. Tom SMITH (Capt.); 11. Jacob HODGSON; 12. Alfie MOULDEN; 15. Jayden NIELSEN; 18. Jay MALSHANSKYJ; 19. Morgan LEWIS. Substitutes: 4. Opanin EDWARDS; 9. Archie FERRIS; 14. David DURU; 16. Jack MATTHEWS; 20. Aysa CORRICK. Substitutions: MATTHEWS for LEWIS (65mins); EDWARDS for JONES (66mins); DURU for PURRINGTON (78mins); CORRICK for MALSHANSKYJ (78mins).
TUESDAY NIGHT LIGHTS: AFC Totton and Taunton Town prepare to do battle at the Snows Stadium.
There was an early setback for the home side with the loss to injury of in-form defender Luke Bennett, with a suspected dislocated shoulder. Shortly after, Charlie Austin appeared to have given Totton lead when he diverted a right-wing cross beyond Taunton goalkeeper Adam Parkes, only for his opposite No.11 Jacob Hodgson to rush back and scrape the ball off the goal line in the nick of time.
Parkes had his palms stung by Taylor’s angled shot, after good work on the right flank by Bennett’s replacement, Declan Rose; Austin headed the rebound over the bar.
Taunton created a couple of half chances; Jayden Nielsen’s pass from the right flank found Morgan Lewis on the edge of Totton’s box but Lewis had to check his run to get the ball under control and his eventual shot was comfortably dealt with by Josh Gould.
A blind pass by Sam Magri had Totton scrambling back into their own penalty area, with Rose trying to block a left-wing cross and captain Joe Oastler eventually scraping the ball away from the edge of the home side’s six-yard box.
OFF THE MARK: Tony Lee slides in to give Totton the lead from a Declan Rose cross.
The Stags took the lead on 16 minutes, when Rose provided a right-wing cross that enabled Tony LEE to slide in unopposed a the six-yard line to guide the ball beyond Parkes and into the back of Taunton Town’s net.
A delightful cross-field ball by Blair found Taylor on the right-hand side. He cut in to deliver a cross, which was repelled by The Peacocks’ defence. Then, Blair dribbled his way through three defenders and threaded a pass between the two Taunton central defenders for Taylor to advance and steer into the net. The flag went up for offside; from the SFS Main Stand, it was clearly visible that Lee had run into an offside position but Blair’s service by-passed the striker, so he wasn’t involved in play.
Gould had to rush out of his box to head clear one Taunton attack, before the visitors forced two corners in quick succession. The giant goalkeeper caught the delivery from the second set-piece and tried to find Taylor with a long kick, which Parkes managed to intercept at the other end before the winger could latch onto it.
Taunton captain Tom Smith dug out a shot from the edge of Totton’s box, which Gould gathered low, in the centre of his goal. Then, expansive play from left to right gave Rose the chance to deliver the kind of cross that Tony Lee usually gobbles up from six yards, but the bounce of the ball eluded him and let Taunton off the hook.
ROSES ARE BLUE: Declan Rose takes possession for AFC Totton.
Smith forced a right-wing corner for the visitors, which Alfie Moulden headed wide of the near post under pressure from two blue-shirted defenders. Then, a strong tackle by Adam Tomasso near half-way inadvertently put former Melksham Town winger Jay Malshanskyj through via an unfortunate ricochet, but Lee chased back to reclaim the ball at the edge of the box before the Taunton No.18 could get his shot away.
Tomasso’s determined defending held up the dangerously-mulleted Smith on the edge of Totton’s box, on the Taunton right. Oastler came round on the cover to complete the cross from in front of the home team’s goal. Taunton tried a long throw, which was twice headed upward within a crowded penalty area before Taylor cleared.
Moulden glided through three Totton players in midfield before laying the ball off to Nielsen, but a swarm of blue shirts surrounded the situation to smother the chance.
Ash Clarke was booked while still sitting on the substitutes’ bench for delaying a restart by throwing a second football onto the pitch while a Taunton player was about to take a throw-in from right in front of the home dug-out.
Roddy Collins picked up the first yellow card caution of his AFC Totton career for a trip on Nielsen that prevented Taunton launching a counter-attack. The Peacocks sent a high in-swinging cross into the Totton box from the resulting free-kick but any potential threat was soon nullified by an offside flag.
HALF-TIME: AFC TOTTON 1-0 TAUNTON TOWN
Neither side made any changes at the break. Taunton’s Toby Down took the first shot of the second half with a low 20-yard effort that Gould took comfortably. Totton’s first attempt on goal after the interval came from Rose, volleying the ball back into the box after Blair’s floated cross was headed out. Lee got his head to it but Parkes claimed.
ON THE VOLLEY: Ethan Taylor meets Tom Blair's left-wing corner full on the volley to extend AFC Totton's lead in spectacular fashion at the Snows Stadium.
Totton extended their lead in style four minutes into the second half, with a goal of pristine quality. From a left-wing corner, Tom Blair picked out Ethan TAYLOR on the edge of the penalty area for the winger to strike an exquisite left-foot volley that scorched the cold air between the heads of several Taunton defenders as it flashed past Parkes and tore the net off the frame of the goal. As the Snows Stadium erupted in appreciation of a spectacular strike, Taylor made a beeline to the AFC Totton dug-out to celebrate with the backroom staff – suggesting prior-planning had been afoot.
Hodgson was pulled-up for grappling with Lee, as the two chased a through-ball. The referee called Taunton skipper Smith over to observe his verbal warning of Hodgson.
Totton’s third goal on 55 minutes may not have been as easy on the eye as their second, but it was no less welcome. After a flowing team move was defended by the visitors, Blair tried to centre for the in-rushing Taylor. A defender headed the ball out as far as Lee, whose volley hit his marker and spun close enough for Ethan TAYLOR to prod home from five yards with his left leg for his fifth goal of the season.
MAKE MINE A DOUBLE: Ethan Taylor contorts his body to notch his second goal of the game.
The Stags made it 4-0 just three minutes later from another left-wing corner delivery by Blair to the edge of the six-yard box, where Sam MAGRI score a towering header with which to celebrate his son Nico’s sixth birthday. The big defender pointed to the delighted birthday boy in the SFS Main Stand while receiving the plaudits from his teammates.
Buoyed by the impressive performance from the players on the pitch, Mally’s Corner serenaded the foggy evening with a bold chorus of Jimmy Ball’s Blue-and-White Army. There were half-hearted appeals for a Totton penalty when Austin’s cross from the right was blocked by a sliding defender; the ball flicked off his knee and onto his arm before rebounding out of play but there was certainly no intent to handle the ball.
Totton’s tenacity and greater energy getting about the Snows Stadium pitch frustrated Taunton’s attacking ambitions, with The Peacocks seemingly running out of ideas on how to drag themselves back into the encounter, until they pulled one back out of nothing when an angled shot from the right bounced in front of Gould, causing him to parry into the path of the unmarked Oliver WOODHOUSE, who side-footed into the exposed left portion of the goal.
Hodgson headed wide from close to the penalty spot from a deep, right-wing free-kick for Taunton, before Jimmy Ball made a triple-substitution to send on Clarke, Kennedy and Hallett in place of Taylor, Collins and Blair.
Nielsen curled a 20-yard shot around the top-right corner of AFC Totton’s goalpost, as the fog rolling across the turf intensified. Lee tracked back to prevent Taunton sub Jack Matthews unleashing a shot from the edge of the Totton box.
NAP HAND: Ash Clarke steps off the bench to make it 5-1 to AFC Totton.
The Stags re-established their four-goal lead on 81 minutes through substitute Ash CLARKE, who ran at two defenders on a swift left-wing counter-attack and used Austin’s movement in the middle as a distraction, before firing home from just inside the box for the second AFC Totton goal of his loan spell from AFC Bournemouth.
Tomasso’s tackle in the centre-circle indicated The Stags’ miserly attitude towards allowing the visitors any more possession than absolutely necessary. The midfielder was then fouled, and from the resulting free-kick, Clarke got in again to test Parkes with a low shot to the near post corner, which the ‘keeper saved.
Scott Rendell made a late cameo appearance, in place of Tony Lee, and was handed the captain’s armband by Joe Oastler. Hallett made a strong run out of defence and deep into Taunton territory, despite having an opponent clipping at his heels. Unable to work the ball into a position to try a long shot, he poked it to Clarke, who already had two defenders for company with no room to manouevre.
Clarke’s pace stretched the Taunton defence and earned Totton a corner on the left, from which the ball was played short for Kennedy to drift in a high cross-shot that floated past the far post, shortly before the final whistle.
View the full image GALLERY from AFC Totton 5-1 Taunton Town
Watch JIMMY BALL'S Post-Match Interview
Watch SAM MAGRI'S Post-Match Interview
Latest Southern League Premier Division South LEAGUE TABLE
By Ben Rochey-Adams
Images courtesy of Harvey Gerring
