AFC Totton
VENUE:
Snows Stadium, Salisbury Road, Totton, Southampton SO40 2RW
Monday 04 November 2024 | Kick-Off 7:45pm
Service of Remembrance to commence at 7:35pm
AFC TOTTON’S BID TO WIN A RECORD-BREAKING fourth consecutive SDFA Southampton Senior Cup gets under way at the Snows Stadium on Monday night when The Stags entertain Wessex League Premier Division side AFC Stoneham in the Second Round of the 2024/25 competition.
Boss Jimmy Ball has yet to finish on the losing side in the Southampton Senior Cup, after leading his team to success in the 2021/22 final against Folland Sports at St. Mary’s Stadium, just two months after taking the reins in March 2021. His team retained the trophy with a 3-0 victory over Sholing at the same venue the following year, and they made it three-in-a-row on home soil with the 4-1 defeat of Hythe & Dibden in May.
The record books show that three other clubs – Sholing Sports (from 1919/20 to 1921/22), Netley Sports (from 1955/56 to 1957/58) and VTFC (from 2005/06 to 2007/08) – have won back-to-back-to-back SDFA Senior Cups, but another victory for AFC Totton this season would see The Stags stand out as the first and only club to ever win four-in-a-row.
WINNERS: Captain Scott Rendell holds the SDFA Southampton Senior Cup trophy after The Stags' 4-1 win over Hythe & Dibden at the Snows Stadium in May 2024.
Stoneham come into the game in good form, having lost only once in the league since the beginning of their 2024/25 campaign. They currently sit sixth in the Wessex League Premier Division table but with as many as four games in-hand over teams above them, that is a potentially false impression of their quality in relation to the four teams currently leading the pack – AFC Portchester, Fareham Town and Hamble Club.
The Purples are still going strong in the Isuzu FA Vase, having overcome Christchurch 2-0 in Second Round Qualifying and following that with a 3-0 home win over Royal Wootton Bassett Town from the Hellenic League Premier Division in the First Round Proper. Familiar foes await them in next weekend’s Second Round tie, when they will make the short trip to fellow Wessex Premier side Hamble Club.
That could mean Stoneham will come up against tough-tackling young defender Leo Taylor in both of their next two outings, with the younger brother of first team winger Ethan currently on a dual-registration loan with The Monks but still eligible to turn out for AFC Totton in the SDFA Southampton Senior Cup.
The Stags first team won at bottom-of-the-table Marlow in the Southern League Premier Division South on Saturday to stretch their unbeaten run to eight games in all competitions, and they go to Privett Park on Friday night to face Gosport Borough, who requested the match be moved forward by a day as soon as the 2024/25 fixtures were published. With the SDFA Cup Committee keen to see their Second Round ties completed this week, Jimmy Ball will be forced to shuffle his pack against a team that inflicted a surprise 2-5 defeat on The Stags on the 3G surface at the Hampshire FA’s Stoneham Football Complex in pre-season.
The matchday squad is likely to feature a blend of the young and the experienced. Several members of AFC Totton’s free-scoring U23s squad are likely to be involved, together with those members of the first team squad currently in need of minutes to maintain their match sharpness. Winger Tom Blair watched the two-nil win in Buckinghamshire from the stands due to suspension, while goalkeeping duties are likely to be handled by Max Evans.
The likes of Zach Earley, Hugo Rawlings and Owen Pelham – who have all come through the ranks of the AFC Totton Academy – could feature on the night, while at the other end of the career spectrum, we could also see the much-anticipated return to first team action of club captain Mike Carter. The combative midfielder came through 15 minutes of last Wednesday’s Under-23s game at Christchurch unscathed as one of five permitted over-age players, 379 days after his previous appearance for the club when he came off injured at Sholing in February 2023.
This will be AFC Totton’s only first team home match until the visit of Swindon Supermarine on Saturday 30 November, so the club will be taking this opportunity to conduct its Service of Remembrance, led as ever by MC Denis Bundy. The service will begin at 7:35pm and will include the traditional minute’s silence, so please ensure that you are in position around the ground to take part in this important mark of respect for those who have given so much in defence of this country and its people.
By Ben Rochey-Adams
