AFC Totton
SOUTHERN LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION SOUTH | Matchday#08
Saturday 14 September 2024 | The Avenue Stadium, Dorchester, Dorset DT1 2RY | Att: 673
STUMBLING STAGS RELINQUISH UNBEATEN LEAGUE RECORD AT DORCH
DORCHESTER TOWN 3
Olaf Koszela 56mins, 59mins;
Wayne Robinson 70mins
AFC TOTTON 2
Charlie Austin 38mins;
Scott Rendell 90+5mins
AFC TOTTON SUFFERED their first Southern League Premier Division South defeat of the season at The Avenue on Saturday (14 September 2024). The Stags took the lead before half-time but then conceded three goals in 15 minutes to Dorchester Town midway through the second period to leave themselves with too a mountain to climb.
Josh Owers returned to Totton’s line-up in place of Adam Tomasso, in an otherwise unchanged starting XI from the team that beat Wimborne Town 4-0 in midweek. New signing Garrett Kelly was included among the substitutes.
DORCHESTER TOWN: 1. Gerard BENFIELD; 2. Jack DICKSON; 3. Oliver HASTE; 4. William SPETCH (Capt.); 15. Matthew BUSE; 6. Thomas BRAGG; 7. Luke PARDOE; 8. Corby MOORE; 9. Olaf KOSZELA; 10. Shaquille GWENGWE; 11. Wayne ROBINSON. Substitutes: 12. Luke ROBERTS; 18. Harry HUTCHINSON; 14. Kyran SAMADI; 16. Ieuan TURNER; 17. Brendan HOLMES. Substitutions: ROBERTS for PARDOE (82mins); HOLMES for GWENGWE (88mins); HUTCHINSON for ROBINSON (90mins). Yellow Cards: SPETCH (Foul); BUSE (Foul).
AFC TOTTON: 13. Joshua GOULD; 2. Joe OASTLER; 5. Charlie KENNEDY; 6. Sam MAGRI; 9. Scott RENDELL (Capt.); 11. Charlie AUSTIN; 12. Luke HALLETT; 14. Joshua OWERS; 17. Declan ROSE; 18. Tony LEE; 19. Tom BLAIR. Substitutes: 7. Harvey REW; 10. Ethan TAYLOR; 15. Garrett KELLY; 16. Luke BENNETT; 20. Marcus DAWS. Substitutions: KELLY for BLAIR (45mins); TAYLOR for OWERS (64mins); DAWS for HALLETT (72mins). Yellow Cards: BLAIR (Foul); AUSTIN (Kicking Ball Away); LEE (Dissent).
The home side kicked-off the day’s only Southern League Premier Division South fixture, wearing their usual home kit of black-and-white shirts, black shorts and socks. Totton wore their own home kit of all-Royal blue with white trim.
Right-winger Luke Pardoe was the first to threaten for The Magpies, sending in a low cross that Charlie Kennedy swept clear. Then, from a right-wing corner, Corby Moore’s cross was headed over by Matthew Buse at the far post.
Totton’s first attack of note came from Sam Magri’s diagonal pass from the centre-circle, picking out Tom Blair in an advanced position on Totton’s left flank. His cross to just beyond the far post was met by Charlie Austin, whose header veered back across goal and narrowly wide. But Totton were struggling to get into the game on the black-crumbed 3G surface, while Dorchester continued to pose problems.
The busy Pardoe won another Dorchester corner via a Luke Hallett block. It was taken short and Pardoe slipped between two blue shirts on the right of the Totton box before laying the ball back for Moore to clip to the far side. Hallett headed the ball away before it could reach Wayne Robinson, but the former Sholing forward retrieved the ball from the left-wing touchline and dribbled infield to bend a low shot at the near bottom corner, forcing Josh Gould to save at the foot of his right-hand post.
Goalkeeper Gerard Benfield delayed kicking clear from his own penalty area as one of his teammates ran across the ball’s intended flightpath. His hesitation was enough to give Austin a chance to charge down the eventual kick, but the ball cannoned off the striker and went behind for a goal-kick.
Pardoe linked up with striker Olaf Koszela to work himself into a crossing position on the Dorchester right, which was headed out. Then, Kennedy missed his kick to allow ex-Totton forward Shaquille Gwengwe to charge into the box at inside-left, before Joe Oastler came to the rescue with a well-timed sliding tackle. Robinson was again quick to pick up the pieces and test Gould with another low shot, which The Stags ‘keeper saved.
Full-back Jack Dickson got forward to exchange passes with Pardoe, whose clever back-heel played Dickson in to drive an angled shot on-target at the near post; Gould used both hands to parry wide for a corner. The initial delivery was headed out and Robinson’s attempt to keep it alive sent the ball into Gould’s waiting arms.
Tom Blair’s free-kick from the Totton left was headed out of the Dorchester box as far as Tony Lee, who volleyed at goal from 22 yards only to hit a defender. The ball came back to Blair but he was quickly smothered by two defenders before he could get his shot away.
Robinson won a left-wing corner off Declan Rose, which Lee came back to kick clear for the visitors. Then, Rose got forward to force a right-wing corner for Totton, after Scott Rendell headed-on Oastler’s high diagonal from the half-way line. A practiced short corner routine didn’t quite come off as planned, but the ball fell to Oastler about 25 yards out, and his shot wasn’t far over the crossbar.
Dickson received possession wide on the Dorchester right and did well to progress to the byline before pulling back to tee-up Koszela, who bent his left-footed effort about a foot wide of the left-hand post. Then, at the other end, Rose clipped a pass into the inside-right channel for the roaming Blair to race onto and centre, but Lee couldn’t wrap his foot around it and steered his effort wide to the right.
Blair was harshly booked when the ball bounced high off the 3G pitch to directly over his head. He tried to leap high and connect with a header, inadvertently catching the incoming Oliver Haste with his elbow in the process, for which the Dorchester left-back received treatment.
A Scott Rendell pass towards the right-wing corner quadrant gave Austin a lot to do but the striker chased it willingly. A Dorchester defender got there first and tried to pass back to Benfield, but he over-hit it and wrong-footed the goalkeeper to give Lee a sniff of a chance until Benfield managed to recover and scrape the ball away from Lee’s control.
Gould came out to comfortably claim the ball from Dorchester’s right-wing corner. Then, Kennedy made an important defensive block to dismantle another Magpies attack. A free-kick delivery by Moore from next to the right-wing corner flag was headed out by Hallett, and the subsequent follow-up shot blocked by a blue wall of Totton defenders. Lee was again on-hand to clear a corner, as Dorchester continued to look the more likely side to break the deadlock.
An awkward bounce put Magri in a tight spot, with Gwengwe ready to spring into action from behind his shoulder, but the big defender managed to nod the ball back to Gould, shortly before Totton took a surprise lead in the 38th minute.
Magri pinged the ball from the centre-circle to Blair, out on the right-wing touchline, and the winger ran at the defender to win a corner on that side. Blair took the set-piece himself, crossing towards Austin, who was stood close to the penalty spot. The striker’s first shot was smothered at close quarters by a black-and-white shirt but it fell behind the defender and kindly enough for Charlie AUSTIN to pick his spot in the bottom-right corner with Benfield unable to get near it.
The goal had come against the run of play but the hope from the AFC Totton contingent in the away dug-out would no doubt have been that the goal would help the team to settle and start playing their usual style of fluent, attacking football. A long kick from Gould found Rendell on the right flank, who headed on to put Blair into an ideal crossing position at the byline, but his delivery flashed across goal and was turned behind for a left-wing corner by Dickson. Blair bent a cross towards the near post where Austin appeared to get a glancing contact with his forehead but his marker kept it out with a firm defensive header.
A high cross from deep by Josh Owers brought Benfield to the edge of his box. Lee got there first but appeared to be unaware that he could lob the wandering ‘keeper as he tried to knock it down for Rendell, who was wrong-footed by the bounce and a slight deflection from an opponent.
Having already been booked, all eyes turned to the referee when Blair brought down Robinson. The official kept his cards in his pocket, content to award just the free-kick on the Dorchester left, mid-way inside Totton’s half. Central defender Thomas Bragg went up for the set-piece and met the cross with a header from the edge of the penalty area; Lee did his best to put Bragg off and the ball flew wide to the left.
Magri did well to track the flight of an up-and-under that had him turning back towards his own goal as two attackers raced towards him. The former Maltese international prodded the ball out for a throw-in on the Dorchester right. The home side soon converted that throw to a free-kick from an advanced position on the right flank, level with the 18 yard line and close to the touchline. Moore crossed into the box and Bragg was there again, heading narrowly wide of the near post, to give the home fans something to rally behind as the teams then departed for the half-time interval.
HALF-TIME: DORCHESTER TOWN 0-1 AFC TOTTON
With Blair potentially treading a tightrope between the yellow and red cards, Jimmy Ball withdrew the winger at the break and sent on new arrival Garrett Kelly for his AFC Totton debut. Kelly was soon involved, receiving the ball from Rose on the right and finding Rendell with a first-time pass. Rendell’s cross deflected off a defender and fell back to Kelly on the edge of the box, who drove his shot wide to the left.
Buse headed wide from a right-wing cross for Dorchester. Then, Rose’s throw-in from Totton’s right touchline found Lee at inside-right, whose shot on the turn took a deflection off his marker and went wide for a corner. Owers took it and Benfield caught the ball on the edge of his six-yard box.
Gwengwe led a Dorchester attack that reached the right-wing byline before he lost control of the ball. But he was still able to make enough of a nuisance of himself to prevent Totton completely clearing their lines. Moore took aim from distance, striking the ball against a blue shirt to send the ball high into the air; Magri managed to nod it onto the roof of the net, resulting in a corner on Dorchester’s left. It was taken short and although the intended routine appeared to have broken down, Gwengwe took up possession and forced his way into the penalty area. Rose tracked his run and the two players tussled shoulder-to-shoulder before Gwengwe went down. The referee took a moment and then pointed to the penalty spot. Josh Gould guessed the correct way, diving low to his bottom-right corner, but Olaf KOSZELA managed to squeeze his shot past the ‘keeper’s outstretched hand and into the net to level the scores on 56 minutes.
Within three minutes, the home side took the lead. An angled pass to the left flank enabled Koszela to take up possession with Hallett occupying the space between him and the Totton goal. Other blue shirts were funnelling back into defensive positions, so there didn’t appear to be an immediate threat. But Olaf KOZSELA had other ideas, driving infield to work himself enough space within the D to bend a low, right-footed shot beyond Hallett’s outstretched leg and inside the far post, as Gould could only stand and watch.
Hallett put that incident out of his mind to make a firm defensive header to repel Dorchester’s next attack, but then Rose was guilty of dwelling on the ball in his own half, enabling an opponent to dispossess him all too easily in another demonstration of Totton just not being at the races.
Jimmy Ball sent on Ethan Taylor in place of Josh Owers four minutes after the hour mark, to try and inject more attacking threat into Totton’s performance. Austin and Rose advanced the ball on the Totton right before it was partially cleared. Kelly's cross to the far side of the penalty spot was deflected to Taylor, whose angled shot was blocked. Dorchester countered with a direct pass down the middle of the pitch. Wayne ROBINSON ran onto it, held off his marker on the edge of the D, and directed his shot across Gould and in off the far post to give Dorchester a two-goal cushion.
Marcus Daws was then sent on against his former club in place of Luke Hallett, to add yet more firepower to the Totton front line. He was given a warm welcome by Matthew Buse, who flattened him with a front-on bodycheck after Oastler had emerged from a pair of Dorchester forwards on the edge of the Totton box to set the winger on a counter-attack. Taylor had to chase back to prevent the home side getting in again on their right flank.
Kozsela came close to completing his hat-trick with a snapshot from just inside the Totton box, after the ball was played in low from the right-hand side. His curling shot smacked the right upright and bounced back into play, before Totton hacked it away.
Austin had a golden opportunity to reduce the deficit when Lee held up Kelly’s forward pass to lay the ball off to the former Southampton striker, as he raced through on goal in the inside-left channel with his marker struggling to keep up. He shot right-footed for the near bottom corner, only to pull his effort wide of the post. As the ball bounced back to him off the advertising hoarding, Austin blasted it high over the stand and out of the ground, earning a yellow card for kicking the ball away. Tony Lee was also booked for dissent, much to the amusement of the home crowd.
Rose and Rendell worked a crossing opportunity from the right flank. Lee’s back-heel caused a moment of confusion in the Dorchester defence, but there was no blue shirt there to apply the finish. Luke Roberts, who had spells at AFC Totton last summer and much earlier in his career, came on in place of Luke Pardoe for Dorchester with 10 minutes to go.
Gould had to come out of his area to deal with a dangerous through-ball. Then, Koszela’s square pass just outside the box found Robinson, who stumbled before he could get his shot away, allowing Totton to get players around him and smother the chance.
Shaq Gwengwe was replaced by Brendan Holmes with five minutes to go, and Luke Bennett came on in place of Declan Rose for Totton a minute later. In-between those two substitutions, Magri posed a problem for Gould with a back-pass that the ‘keeper could only blast over the stand with Robinson applying pressure.
Eight minutes of stoppage time were indicated by the match officials. Dorchester were by now content to defend their lead to the bitter end, allowing Totton to dominate possession but not territory. Several hopeful crosses were dealt with by the home defence, before Lee managed to find half-a-yard but couldn’t generate enough power in his header to trouble Benfield.
Five minutes beyond the 90, Oastler received the ball near half-way and passed to Daws on the left touchline. Daws checked back onto his right foot and sent a high, dipping cross into the middle where Scott RENDELL headed firmly into the goal to bring Totton within one goal of their hosts, for whom Wayne Robinson was replaced by Harry Hutchinson before play was restarted.
Benfield snatched up the ball when Kelly tried to charge his way into the box. Then, Bennett crossed from the right and Rendell knocked down to Austin, who spun and shot but skewed the ball harmlessly over the crossbar.
Dorchester captain Will Spetch was booked for a late foul on Lee, mid-way inside the Dorchester half. The ball was sent into the Magpies box more in hope than expectation; they successfully defended it and the final whistle confirmed a home win.
Watch JIMMY BALL’S Post-Match Interview
Watch SCOTT RENDELL’S Post-Match Interview
Southern League Premier Division South LEAGUE TABLE
Next Up: AFC TOTTON vs AFC BOURNEMOUTH
SERVIO Hampshire Senior Cup | Second Round | Snows Stadium, Salisbury Road, Totton, Southampton SO40 2RW | Tuesday 17 September 2024 | Kick-Off 7:45pm
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By Ben Rochey-Adams
