AFC Totton
PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY #3 - THE LINDEN CUP
Wednesday 12 July 2023 | Miller Park, Totton | Att: 157
STAGS RETAIN THE LINDEN CUP WITH SIX OF THE BEST AT MILLER PARK
TOTTON & ELING 0
AFC TOTTON 6
Ethan Taylor 12mins; Scott Rendell 23mins, 33mins;
Charlie Davis 37mins; Alfie Stanley 79mins
Conor Whiteley 83mins
AFC TOTTON RETAINED THE LINDEN CUP after a 6-0 victory over neighbours Totton & Eling at Miller Park on Wednesday night.
The match was The Stags' third consecutive win in pre-season and takes their goalscoring tally to 16 goals, ahead of much sterner tests coming their way in the shape of National League outfit Aldershot Town at the weekend and fellow Step 3 club Bognor Regis Town on Wednesday evening.
AFC TOTTON
Starting XI
1. Lewis NOICE
2. Adam TOMASSO
3. Jordan RAGGUETTE
4. Mike CARTER (Capt.)
5. Charlie KENNEDY
19. Sam MAGRI
12. Josh CARMICHAEL
7. Charlie DAVIS
9. Scott RENDELL
10. Ethan TAYLOR
11. Alfie STANLEY
Substitutes
6. Luke HALLETT
8. Trialist A
13. Trialist B
14. Owen PELHAM
15. Conor WHITELEY
16. Leo TAYLOR
17. Sami MAKHLOUFI
18. Elliott SIMPSON
As expected, The Stags dominated possession from kick-off and were first to threaten a goal when Ragguette received the ball on the left wing and passed to Stanley on the near corner of the penalty area. With a defender in his way, Stanley clipped a cross to the far side for Tomasso to shoot, but a T&E defender made a brave block. Stanley then held the ball up with his back to goal, before laying off for Ethan Taylor to drive a low shot that the goalkeeper saved.
A long cross-field pass from Carmichael was well-controlled by Ragguette on the left wing. He fed Taylor whose cross just eluded Rendell in the middle. But two minutes later, the visitors went ahead. Davis latched onto Tomasso’s long ball down the right touchline to force a corner, which Taylor took. A quick exchange of short passes with Tomasso had Ethan TAYLOR drifting infield and firing his low shot in at the near post.
OPENER: Ethan Taylor got the ball rolling with the opening goal of the Linden Cup match.
Totton & Eling mounted an attack down their left, but the full-back’s cross was plucked out of the air by Noice. Then, Magri’s header was deflected over from a Davis left-wing corner. Ragguette’s pace enabled him to prevent a counter-attack, before a swift move between Stanley, Davis and Tomasso ended with the latter’s low cross being inches away from the outstretched leg of the prone Rendell, as he slid in at full length.
Stanley fired over from the left corner of the box, then Nathan Hurst, playing in central defence for the home team, blocked a long-range effort from Davis. The Stags went two-up on 23 minutes, when a determined forward run by Davis saw him connect with Tomasso’s high pass up the right wing, which the full-back could only help on its way to the byline. Davis kept it in play and stood his cross up to the far post where centre-forward Scott RENDELL leapt like the proverbial salmon to head Totton’s second.
Typically tenacious tackling from Tomasso gave Stanley another chance to aim at the Totton & Eling goal, but his shot from just inside the area was too high. Then on 33 minutes, as The Stags continued to attack in blue waves, Carter scooped the ball over a defender from the right of the D. Stanley darted in behind, rode the challenge and pulled the ball back for Scott RENDELL to shoot into the centre of the goal for 3-0.
Tomasso continued to influence the game with incisive passes and energetic runs down the right-hand side, and from his good work Rendell, Taylor and Stanley were queuing up on the left before the latter shot over the bar.
AMONG THE GOALS, AGAIN: Midfielder Charlie Davis made it 4-0 to The Stags before Half-Time.
Rendell and Stanley cut their way through the red-and-black striped shirts in the 37th minute, progressing through the middle until Stanley picked out Charlie DAVIS, who had made a run to the inside-right channel; the midfielder took a touch and squeezed a firm side-foot finish between the on-rushing goalkeeper and the near post.
Rendell dropped deep to flick the ball on from close to the halfway line, giving Stanley the chance to race through on goal from the inside-left, but the keeper reacted quickly by coming a long way out of his area to hack clear. Then, as Magri continued with the aerial dominance he had been demonstrating throughout the first half, Carter was spoken to by the Referee for snapping into a midfield tackle with a raised right foot.
At the end of the half, AFC Totton looked likely to score a fifth goal until the originally impressive combination between Tomasso, Taylor and Rendell became too intricate, and Taylor’s eventual cross was headed out by a T&E defender.
HALF-TIME
TOTTON & ELING 0
AFC TOTTON 4
Jimmy Ball made four changes during the break, and one of the new arrivals, Leo Taylor, almost got lucky with an early second-half right-wing cross that veered off its intended course but had to be watched closely as it drifted over the bar.
Ragguette’s strength and pace was posing problems for T&E going in both directions all evening. His cross from the left was knocked on by Makhloufi in the box for Stanley to line up another shot, which T&E’s former Accrington Stanley and Mansfield Town centre-back Tom Lycett charged down at close quarters.
The Stags weren’t as fluent in the second half without the energy of Tomasso, Davis and the elder Taylor brother. But the Totton & Eling keeper had to be alert to beat Ragguette to a seeming lost cause that had the roaming left-back charging forward.
BACK IN THE FOLD: Josh Carmichael has made a full recovery from the injury that put him out at the end of last season and played for an hour against Totton & Eling.
Tackles began to fly in from both teams around the hour mark, and Carmichael had to be spoken to by the Referee after he complained that a challenge on him had been reckless. Carmichael, Rendell and Carter were all withdrawn from the game at that point, with Simpson, Whiteley and Pelham stepping off the bench to replace them. But no sooner had play restarted than Leo Taylor also had to depart the pitch, leaving Totton down to 10 men for the remainder of the game.
A quick reshuffle had Pelham slotting in at right-back, just moments after he had come on as a central midfielder. Simpson was caught in possession near the halfway line but over-eagerness in possession cost The Millers dearly, even as Ragguette slipped on the turf, which had received a brief heavy downpour around mid-afternoon, and the chance to mount a meaningful attack on the AFC Totton goal was gone.
They did manage to breakthrough in the 67th minute with a sweeping move that enabled the No.3 to find space on the right. His shot flew across goal, high and wide of the far top corner. Two minutes later, Pelham forced the ball forward for a teammate to spin and turn on the edge of the box and shoot; the keeper deflected it wide. From the corner, an initially short corner was followed by a cross to the far side of the box where Whiteley brought it down on his chest and fired past the keeper, only for a covering defender to hack the ball off the goal line.
T&E were presenting more road blocks for their more illustrious visitors than they had in the first half, and they won a rare corner on their right-hand side when Hallett misplaced his pass across the back four. The delivery was too long, though, and Whiteley was able to launch a counter-attack before a Millers defender intervened close to the halfway line.
STANLEY & DELIVER: Striker Alfie Stanley has impressed with his contribution in the three pre-season games, so far.
Goal number five for The Stags came in the 79th minute, when Pelham played the ball down the right wing for Whiteley to sprint clear of the left-back. With time to get his head up and survey the situation in the penalty area, he delivered a firm, low ball that bounced on its way across the six-yard box to the far post, where Alfie STANLEY adjusted his feet expertly before nodding beyond the keeper for his fourth goal of the pre-season programme to date.
The Totton & Eling goalkeeper had to rush out again to beat the relentless Ragguette to Hallett’s long ball. But he could do little to prevent AFC Totton’s sixth and final goal of the game, when Conor WHITELEY leapt above two defenders to meet a right-wing cross with a powerful headed finish.
Sami Makhloufi had a late shot blocked on the edge of T&E’s area, before he and Whiteley got in each other’s way during a subsequent attack, and Lycett cleared.
After the match, AFC Totton Manager Jimmy Ball (pictured) said:
"That was a good physical work out for the players. Totton & Eling gave us a tricky first 15 minutes or so, when they were energetic and working hard, they made us weather the situation a little bit. But once we got our noses in front, we played with a lot more confidence and some of the football we played and the goals we scored were a joy to watch.
"We're stepping up everyone's involvement, now. A few players got a full 90 minutes, today, and a couple of others played an hour, and - best of all - we've come through it without any injuries, ready to face Aldershot Town on Saturday, which will obviously be a completed different proposition.
"They are a National League side, so we're unlikley to see as much of the ball as we have in the last three games. It will be a good test for our lads, to see how they can respond and how well they work when the other team has more of the ball. I'm looking forward to seeing their boss Tommy Widdrington, who I know from when I was a coach at Southampton, and the assistant Richard Dryden, who I worked with for a short time at Forest Green Rovers. They're both great football people and it will be fun to come up against them, especially now that the Snows Stadium pitch is ready for us to return to it."
Up Next: AFC TOTTON vs Aldershot Town
Pre-Season Friendly #4
Saturday 15 July 2023
Snows Stadium, Totton SO40 2RW
Kick-Off at 3:00pm
Buy Tickets
By Ben Rochey-Adams
Images courtesy of Craig Hobbs Photography
