AFC Totton
New AFC Totton Manager Jimmy Ball takes the reins for the first of a double-header against Bideford AFC at the Snows Stadium this Saturday, in a must-win game. The two sides face each other again in the reverse fixture on Tuesday 29 March.
Tickets on sale now for Saturday's game: afctotton.ticketco.events/uk/en
As any Park Pitch Pelé can testify, double-headers are not uncommon in Saturday and Sunday league amateur football where bad weather winters can lay claim to half the season’s fixtures, leaving a slate of matches to be completed during the last few weeks of the season – which will often include having to play the same team twice on the same pitch, on the same day.
AFC Totton and Bideford now come head-to-head in the Southern League Div.1 South equivalent, with an effective two-legged league encounter starting with Saturday’s meeting at the Snows Stadium, followed by the immediate return fixture in Devon on Tuesday night.
The Stags’ away match at The Sports Ground, Bideford was originally supposed to take place on Saturday 18 December, which turned out to be the day their Buildbase FA Trophy run came to an end at Larkhall Athletic. Progress on other cup fronts left the fixture on the ‘to be arranged’ list for a while, until the home and away fixtures were eventually placed right next to each other in the late-March portion of the fixture list.
Bideford, who are 16th in the table, have been struggling all season, and but for the terrible start that Barnstaple Town made to their campaign, would normally find themselves embroiled in a relegation battle right now. Among the seven wins they have achieved in the league this season is an impressive double over Bristol Manor Farm, courtesy of a late, late winner from Charles Hanson to take all three points from the Farmy Army a month ago to add to the 2-0 victory they achieved at the Creek in October.
While Barnstaple have shown signs of staging a late surge for Southern League Div.1 One South survival with a recent upturn in results, following an overhaul of their playing personnel, Bideford have responded by signing 25-year-old striker Louis Jagger-Cane from Willand Rovers, in the hope that the former Tiverton Town marksman can help to ensure the Robins don’t get drawn into a late relegation scrap. The decision has already begun to pay dividends, with Jagger-Cane getting off to a flyer on his debut at home to Slimbridge on Saturday, when he needed just 2 minutes to open his Bideford AFC goalscoring account to set them on their way to a 2-0 success and put some distance between themselves, Cinderford Town, Mangotsfield and Barnstaple at the foot of the table.
The match marks new Manager Jimmy Ball's first game in charge of AFC Totton, having taken the job earlier in the week. The former Portsmouth, Blackburn Rovers, Stoke City coach, who was most recently Assistant Manager to Paul Tisdale at Stevenage, took the team for training on Tuesday night and will be keen to get off to a winning start before a home crowd this weekend.
New AFC Totton Manager Jimmy Ball.
BIDEFORD AFC – LAST 5 MATCHES (All Competitions)
Sat 19 Feb Bristol Manor Farm H Southern League Div.1 South W 1-0
Sat 26 Feb Evesham United A Southern League Div.1 South D 0-0
Sat 05 Mar Melksham Town A Southern League Div.1 South D 2-2
Tue 15 Mar Plymouth Parkway H Southern League Div.1 South L 1-2
Sat 19 Mar Slimbridge H Southern League Div.1 South W 2-0
AFC TOTTON vs BIDEFORD AFC – Previous Meetings
Since they were both in the Southern League Premier in the 2010/11 season, AFC Totton and Bideford have faced each other 16 times, with Bideford winning 5 matches to Totton’s 3 victories, with 7 draws.
A Mike Gosney hat-trick led the Stags to a 5-1 home win on 01 February 2011, despite thick fog that caused the Tuesday night match to be delayed during the second half. But, in the return fixture a month later, the Robins brought Totton’s run of 11 consecutive wins to a halt by holding them to a 1-1 draw in Devon, with Gosney on-target again, this time from the penalty spot.
Owen Howe – him, again! – scored a brace for Bideford in their 4-0 home win over Totton in August 2013. And a young Harry Medway opened the scoring for Totton at the Testwood Stadium in April 2017, helping the Stags to go 3-0 up inside the first 25 minutes, before they spurned several other chances to further extend their lead. But after conceding in the 61st and 88th minutes, they were left hanging on at the end and, three minutes into stoppage time, had their hearts broken by Dan Western who equalised for Bideford in controversial circumstances – many Robins fans agreed after the game their player had bundled the ball over the goal-line with his hand!
Totton have not won any of the last three encounters, but the one before that was a 4-0 home victory featuring a goal from Justin Bennett and a Craig Feeney hat-trick.
By Ben Rochey-Adams and Malcolm Tombs, Historian
Image courtesy of Craig Hobbs Photography
Kit illustrations courtesy on Bolid74
