MATCH PREVIEW: STAGS TRAVEL TO WINCH ON BOXING DAY

WINCHESTER CITY vs AFC TOTTON_SLPDS-19_Thu26Dec2024.jpg

SECOND OF FOUR CONSECUTIVE relatively local derbies for AFC Totton across the festive period, this season’s traditional Boxing Day outing will see Jimmy Ball’s men take a short trip up the M3 to visit Winchester City.

The Stags recovered from a very early setback to beat Sholing 2-1 on Saturday and having (probably) dodged the mince pies and alcohol on Christmas Day, they will be looking to extend their unbeaten run to eleven Southern League Premier Division South matches when they take on the 16^th-placed Citizens on Thursday.

Remember – it’s an early start for this Boxing Day clash; Winchester City vs AFC Totton will kick-off at 1:00pm.

Hot on the heels of their visit to Winchester, AFC Totton will host back-to-back home games against Poole Town on Saturday 28 December 2024 and Havant & Waterlooville on New Year’s Day. Tickets for both games are selling fast, so act quickly – and save money – by purchasing your match tickets online in advance.

WINCHESTER CITY – THEIR SEASON TO DATE:

Having finished in a solidly respectable mid-table position last season – with 15 wins and just as many defeats garnering a points total of 57, and a goal difference of negative four – it took Winchester, who are managed by the former AFC Totton defender Craig Davis, four attempts to register their first victory of the 2024/25 campaign.

An opening day draw at Marlow was followed by home defeats to Wimborne Town and Gosport Borough, before they overcame Plymouth Parkway with a 3-0 success at Bolitho Park. Then a goalless draw at home to Dorchester Town on the late-August Bank Holiday Monday began a sequence in which The Citizens took just four points from a possible 21, until they finally registered their second league win of the season by coming from behind to beat Walton & Hersham when ex-Stags striker Tommy Wright’s 49^th-minute equaliser set them on the right path.

In the meantime, single goal away victories at Tavistock AFC and Hungerford Town – in a replay after a 1-1 draw at the Charters Community Stadium in Second Round Qualifying – saw Winchester progress in the Emirates FA Cup. Weymouth eventually proved their undoing, a 2-2 draw in Hampshire requiring a second bout in Dorset when The Terras delivered a knock-out blow to the tune of 0-3.

In the Isuzu FA Trophy, The Citizens matched Totton in going as far as the Second Round Proper, only to be knocked out on penalties by less-fancied opposition. Swindon Supermarine were comfortably despatched with a 5-2 shellacking in Third Round Qualifying, before another visit to Tavistock resulted in a convincing 4-0 victory in Devon. The Second Round draw presented Winchester with a winnable home tie against Sittingbourne of the Isthmian League South East Division, but a 1-1 stalemate took the contest to penalties and The Brickies triumphed by five successful conversions to four.

Winchester have not participated in the last few editions of the Southampton Senior Cup. They entered at the Second Round stage of this season’s Servio Hampshire Senior Cup, beating Gosport Borough 2-0 at Privett Park and then winning 4-1 at home to Combined Counties League Division One side Eversley & California to reach the quarter-finals.

Since that win over Walton & Hersham on 19 October, Winchester City’s league form has been reliably patchy with home defeats to Gloucester City, Havant & Waterlooville and Basingstoke Town being somewhat offset by away wins at Frome Town, Sholing and – last time out – Wimborne Town, where two stoppage-time goals from The Magpies’ William Fletcher made the final score of 4-2 appear less of a drubbing for the home side than it might well have been. Those three points – and a significantly better goal difference – currently separate Winchester in 16^th from Tiverton Town in the highest of the relegation spots in 19^th, with both teams having played 20 league games to date.

*Biggleswade Town won 3-2 on penalties

WINCHESTER CITY vs AFC TOTTON – LAST SEASON:
The corresponding fixture came early in the 2023/24 season, with Scott Rendell’s second-half hat-trick doubling the half-time advantage that a goal from Matty Burrows and two from Leon Maloney – the second a long-range pearler – had established in glorious sunshine. The return match, nine days before last Christmas, proved a much tougher affair for The Stags, who again had Scott Rendell to thank for a 78^th-minute reply to Daniel Jones’s opener nine minutes into the second half.

STAGS RADIO:
If you can’t make it to Winchester on Boxing Day, you can listen to all the action as it happens on StagsRadio. Join Lead Commentator Benjy Rees for LIVE coverage on our official X account from 12:45pm.

By Ben Rochey-Adams