AFC Totton
SOUTHERN LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION SOUTH | Matchday#22
Tuesday 14 January 2025 | Penydarren Park, Merthyr Tydfil, Wales | Att: 1,744
GRITTY STAGS PERFORMANCE EARNS A POINT AT PENYDARREN PARK
MERTHYR TOWN 1
Ricardo Rees 35mins
AFC TOTTON 1
Joe Oastler 45mins
A STRONG DEFENSIVE REARGUARD ACTION saw AFC Totton battle their way to a point at Penydarren Park in the top-of-the-table clash with current Southern League Premier Division South leaders Merthyr Town in South Wales on Tuesday night (14 January 2025).
The division’s top scorer Ricardo Rees put The Martyrs ahead on 35 minutes but a bullet header from Joe Oastler from Ethan Taylor’s corner in first-half stoppage time sent the two sides in level at the break. The home team bossed possession in the second half while Totton occasionally threatened on the break but it took an excellent save by Ryan Gosney to deny Thomas Handley from a free-kick and a last-dtich tackle from Luke Bennett to ensure Totton made their way back across the Welsh border with what could ultimately prove to be an invaluable point in the 2024/25 Step 3 title race.
DO THE STAGS HUDDLE: AFC Totton players engage in a morale-boosting conflab moments before the start of their match at Merthyr Town.
Luke Bennett retained his place in the starting line-up for the third consecutive game but was relocated to left-back with Tega Agberhiere dropping to the bench. Charlie Austin returned after recent illness with Tom Blair making way. Named alongside Blair among the AFC Totton substitutes was 25-year-old forward Ben Seymour, whose loan move from National League South leaders Torquay United was completed on the morning of the game.
MERTHYR TOWN: 1. Jaimie COGMAN; 2. Callum RYAN-PHILLIPS; 3. Thomas HANDLEY; 6. Cole JARVIS; 9. Kane SIMPSON; 10. Ricardo REES; 14. Jack EVANS; 15. Noah SMERDON; 16. Matthew HARRIS (Capt.); 17. Lee LUCAS; 19. Kieran EVANS. Substitutes: 4. Aneurin LIVERMORE; 13. Benjamin WHALE; 7. Frazer THOMAS; 8. Adulai SAMBU; 18. Cawley COX. Substitutions: THOMAS for HARRIS (45mins); LIVERMORE for K.EVANS (87mins). Yellow Cards: REES (Foul); HARRIS (Foul); THOMAS (Dissent); HANDLEY (Foul).
AFC TOTTON: 13. Ryan GOSNEY; 2. Joe OASTLER; 5. Charlie KENNEDY; 8. Adam TOMASSO; 9. Scott RENDELL (Capt.); 10. Ethan TAYLOR; 11. Charlie AUSTIN; 12. Luke HALLETT; 15. Roddy COLLINS; 16. Luke BENNETT; 18. Tony LEE. Substitutes: 4. Mike CARTER; 6. Sam MAGRI; 7. Ben SEYMOUR; 19. Tom BLAIR; 20. Tega AGBERHIERE. Substitutions: BLAIR for AUSTIN (61mins); MAGRI for HALLETT (67mins); SEYMOUR for RENDELL (72mins). Yellow Cards: KENNEDY (Foul).
IT'S ALL KICKING-OFF: Charlie Austin prepares to get the top-of-the-table clash underway at Merthyr Town's Penydarren Park.
Totton took to Merthyr’s 3G pitch wearing their home kit of all-Royal blue with white trim while their hosts wore white shirts, black shorts and white socks. A bumper crowd of 1,744 were in attendance as The Stags got the match underway.
Luke Bennett and Charlie Austin combined down the left flank to make the first attacking incursion. Merthyr cleared but only as far as Joe Oastler, who drove forward from the half-way line before the ball was kicked into touch midway inside the home team’s half. Merthyr regained possession but Tony Lee forced a mistake from a defender which allowed Bennett to intercept the clearance. He found Austin whose in-swinging cross was headed on by Scott Rendell but turned away by the Merthyr defence.
Merthyr sprung forward from the half-way line. Oastler headed out a clipped pass looking to put a runner through the middle and the follow-up shot, somewhat rushed by Luke Hallett’s challenge, was high and wide to the right of goal.
Right-back Thomas Handley, wearing the No.3 shirt for The Martyrs, collected the ball on the touchline and drifted infield to avoid Bennett, then space opened up for him to encroach on the edge of the Totton area and let fly with a left-footed shot that went narrowly wide of the near post, providing plenty of encouragement to the boisterous home crowd.
SHOT ACROSS THE BOWS: Merthyr right-back Thomas Handley goes close for the home side with Luke Hallett guarding the way to Totton's goal.
Lee won the ball in the centre-circle and found Adam Tomasso, but his pass was intercepted and Merthyr launched a counter-offensive. Handley played Cole Jarvis in down the right to whip in a cross that Ryan Gosney did well to catch at the edge of his six-yard box. Then, Kennedy and Hallett both headed back towards their own goal to prevent Ricardo Rees latching onto a long ball down Merthyr’s left; Gosney appeared to be momentarily wrong-footed but corrected himself in time to grab the ball before it could go for a corner.
Hallett misjudged the angle of an incoming ball that he might have preferred to volley rather than head but Totton had enough bodies back to stop the home side capitalising on his under-powered clearance. Then, in the eighth minute, Bennett was dispossessed near the half-way line and a high diagonal found Kane Simpson left of the Totton penalty area. He turned away from the covering Austin and gave a short lay-off to enable Rees to shoot from the edge of the area, forcing Gosney to save low to his left.
Totton were finding it hard to settle on the ball but a foul on Roddy Collins in the middle of the park gave them some respite and a chance to regroup, Oastler and Tomasso helped Kennedy to gain yards down the right flank until he was able to hang a high cross that Lee headed against a defender. Austin’s follow-up shot was blocked, with the rebound flying out to the left-hand side. Ethan Taylor gathered the ball but he couldn’t deliver and Totton were forced back.
Play was stopped while Gosney complained of objects being thrown onto the pitch from the large congregation of Merthyr fans behind his goal, prompting a warning over the public address system that any continuation of such behaviour would not be tolerated by the match officials, When play resumed, Totton went forward and a snapshot by Lee from the edge of the box went close.
Oastler timed his sliding tackle well to halt Simpson’s progress on the Merthyr right. But shortly after, Charlie Kennedy was booked for the second of two incidents within seconds of each other that left two Merthyr players on the ground. Although one was soon back on his feet, Jack Evans required several minutes of treatment from the physic before play could continue.
Totton were quickly in again, Lee running onto a through-ball to the inside-right channel and firing a low shot across goal that nicked off Handley before Austin could convert at the far post, and out for a left-wing corner. Tomasso took it and his cross was headed out as far as Taylor. A Taylor-Tomasso one-two progressed the former to the byline. His cross was turned away and as Rendell tried to retrieve it with a sliding challenge near the touchline he enraged the home support with what they perceived to be a heinous foul at which the referee, while awarding a free-kick, barely battered an eye.
An over-hit pass down the middle enabled a quick catch-and-release from Gosney, who picked out Taylor on the left, near the half-way line. He hooked the ball into the middle of the Merthyr half where Lee chested it back to Tomasso. He spread the play wide to Kennedy on the right and another high cross into the box had goalkeeper Jaimie Cogman watching on nervously as it arced just over the frame of his goal.
Handley and Jarvis continued to pose problems on the left side of Totton’s defence. Hallett had to stretch to cut-out one cross before an offside flag came to his rescue when the loose ball was poked through to Rees. Then, Oastler gave Simpson a surreptitious shove as the ball bounced out of play near the corner flag to further upset the partisan home crowd.
MY BALL: Luke Bennett (No.16) competes for possession in midfield.
Simpson rode a challenge on that same flank and sent in a cross that bounced out of Rees’s grasp, forcing the striker to go and retrieve the ball on the left. Merthyr recycled possession but when the ball was eventually delivered into the box, it was headed harmlessly wide of the left post by Smerdon.
Totton were getting most joy attacking from their right but Bennett’s high delivery eluded ‘keeper Cogman, but also both Rendell and Austin. An enterprising run down the Merthyr left by Jack Evans was nixed by Hallett, tracking back and getting his foot in to flick the ball away at the edge of the Totton box. His reward was a full-on body-check from Ricardo Rees that sparked an angry reaction from the Totton players and earned the striker a yellow card.
But Rees’s next action in the game was even more impactful as a long ball from deep enabled him to race away from Bennett into the inside-left channel. Gosney came out to narrow the angle at the corner of the penalty area; Ricardo REES side-stepped the ‘keeper and, despite two blue shirts frantically trying to get back to block the path to goal, steered the ball home from a tight angle to give The Martyrs the lead.
Merthyr were quickly on the ball again but were uncharacteristically wasteful in possession, before another foul by Rendell brought more howls of blue murder from the Penydarren Park terraces. Kieran Evans carried the fight forward for the Welsh side, picking the ball up in the middle of the pitch and advancing via a one-two to 30 yards out before slipping a short pass to Jarvis, who fired narrowly wide under pressure from the sliding Oastler. Then, Jarvis received a high diagonal pass on the right, brought the ball down and ran at Bennett before whipping in a cross from the byline that Oastler headed away, shortly before Hallett had to concede a corner as Totton struggled to contain the home side’s attacking threat. The corner was delivered as an in-swinging cross towards the far post but Lee was well-placed to head away.
Hallett did well to head clear another cross-field pass by Kieran Evans, as Rees was revving his engines to race in behind the Totton defence, again.
Tomasso’s dogged determination won the ball in the centre-circle to put Totton on the front foot once more, and they were able to work Bennett into a crossing position from the left. A defensive intervention sent the ball up rather than out, and when the ball dropped, Cogman missed it under pressure from Rendell and was relieved to see one of his defenders hook it out for a corner. The announcement for six minutes of first-half stoppage time came as Taylor drove the left-wing corner across Merthyr’s penalty area and onto the head of the rapidly incoming Joe OASTLER who powerfully despatched the ball past Cogman and into the bottom-left corner to level the scores.
Suddenly, the home side were looking the more vulnerable. Austin went down under a challenge but the referee waved play-on to allow Taylor to hook the ball forward, encouraging Lee to engage in an aerial challenge with ‘keeper Cogman, who had come a long way out of his box to head clear.
Merthyr skipper Matthew Harris was booked for a foul in which he injured himself, extending the stoppage time still further. Rees tried to charge through the heart of the Totton defence but was bogged down by the sheer weight of numbers. Then, after he had gone down again in some discomfort, Merthyr withdrew their captain and sent on winger Frazer Thomas who barely had time to touch the ball before the first half was finally brought to a close.
HALF-TIME: MERTHYR TOWN 1-1 AFC TOTTON
Merthyr kicked-off the second half with neither side having made any further changes during the interval, their large contingent of home supporters having traipsed to the other end of the ground to congregate behind the goal their team would attack for the remaining 45 minutes of the game.
The home side’s first attempt to reassert their first-half territorial advantage ran aground thanks to Roddy Collins. Then, a period of back-and-forth football provided Bennett with a sight of goal from 20 yards; he controlled the ball on his chest but miss-hit his shot.
Merthyr played Frazer Thomas in down the right-hand side and from his pull-back, Handley shot wide from the edge of the area. Undeterred, The Martyrs’ fans behind the goal boasted of their team being “top of the league”.
Lee headed away a corner from the Merthyr left. Jarvis tried to bring the ball forward but ran into Hallett, as Totton stuck to their rigid defensive shape to restrict attacking space. Bennett did well to beat Smerdon to a loose ball but Lee couldn’t flick it past the last man with half the pitch to run into beckoning him to exploit it.
COME 'ERE: Adam Tomasso chases Merthyr forward Kane Simpson.
Smerdon got forward to win a corner off Taylor. Rendell headed it out and Oastler repelled the follow-up from Lee Lucas, with Rees poised for it to drop behind the Totton defender.
Taylor, Austin and Lee tried to build the play down the left for the visitors but Merthyr’s own defensive organisation was also very good and they forced The Stags back towards their own half before a loose pass handed possession back to the hosts. Hallett had to head one clear and then volley upfield to keep the door firmly shut.
One minute past the hour mark, Jimmy Ball withdrew Austin and sent on Blair. Kennedy headed out from Rees, then Smerdon tracked Blair’s first attacking foray to halt his progress down the Totton right.
Kennedy stooped to control a bouncing ball on his chest, prompting optimistic shouts of “hand-ball!” from the home crowd. Then, Gosney had to keep his eyes on the ball to catch a high cross from the Merthyr right, despite colliding with Kennedy in the process.
Hallett was replaced by Sam Magri on 67minutes. A few short, sharp passes quickly brought Merthyr to the edge of the Tototn box before Kennedy tripped Rees, resulting in a free-kick to the home side from inside the D. Now wearing the captain’s armband, Handley struck a curling right-footed effort towards the top-right corner but Gosney reacted brilliantly to tip the ball over the bar with his left glove. Magri headed out the corner. Merthyr regained possession but Bennett won it back on the left of Totton’s box and made the clearance.
Frazer Thomas was booked for dissent, while Totton brought on Ben Seymour for his AFC Totton debut in place of Rendell, who handed the captain’s armband to Joe Oastler. Blair headed on a long ball from Totton’s right-wing touchline for Seymour to collect on the near side of the penalty area. He drove in a low cross towards Lee but Handley intervened to clear.
Smerdon found himself the furthest man forward for Merthyr, collecting the ball just inside the Totton box and having to turn before he could shoot but he didn’t get enough power behind it to trouble Gosney. Then, Bennett had to make a last-ditch sliding tackle to prevent Lucas springing through at inside-right. The loose ball took a ricochet and Rees could only stab it against the right-hand post as Gosney tried to smother. The home fans couldn’t comprehend how the ball hadn’t gone in but while they pondered it, the referee stopped play and restarted with an uncontested drop-ball to the Totton ‘keeper.
Ryan-Phillips got forward to pull the ball back to Handley, whose arced effort dipped narrowly over the crossbar. Merthyr were forcing the play but Totton continued to stand up to it in their own defensive third, looking for opportunities to counter. Oastler blocked well after a corner had been half-cleared, then Totton defended the next Merthyr corner in a similar fashion, erecting a blue well whenever a player in white tried to line up a shot.
Seymour poked the ball on for Lee to chase. Handley could see that he was beaten for pace and tripped Lee, knowing that he would receive a yellow card as a result. With three minutes of normal time left, the home side withdrew Kieran Evens and brought on Aneurin Livermore. From the free-kick for the foul on Lee, Totton earned a right-wing corner. Blair crossed and Oastler met it in the air but his header looped over the frame of the goal.
Magri and Oastler both headed out high balls into Totton territory, as the board went up to indicate five minutes of stoppage time. Bennett did well to read a developing attack and snuff it out. Totton countered and Blair took on Smerdon on the right flank. He got to the byline and hung a cross to the far post where Lee had to stretch but managed to head it down to the incoming Taylor, who scuffed his effort, dropping the ball into the arms of the grateful Cogman.
A determined run by Rees earned another free-kick in a dangerous position. Again, Handley sized up the shot but this time he shanked his effort a long way over the crossbar, allowing Totton to take a big collective sigh of relief shortly before the final whistle sounded.
Watch JIMMY BALL'S post-match interview
Watch JOE OASTLER'S post-math interview
Latest Southern League Premier Division South TABLE
By Ben Rochey-Adams
Images courtesy of Dayton Jenkins
