AFC Totton
PRE-SEASON FRIENDLY #5
Wednesday 19 July 2023 | Snows Stadium, Totton | Att: 288
TOTTON SHOW TRUE GRIT IN BATTLING WIN AGAINST THE ROCKS
AFC TOTTON 2
Trialist 57mins; Matty Burrows 80mins
BOGNOR REGIS TOWN 0
THE ROCKS WERE TURNED OVER at the Snows Stadium on Wednesday night when AFC Totton defeated Bognor Regis Town by two goals without reply.
Adam Tomasso came into the side at right-back, with Charlie Kennedy returning to his usual central defensive berth. With talismanic centre-forward Scott Rendell away in Gothenburg, Sweden coaching at the presitigous Gothia Cup youth tournament, Conor Whiteley came in for a starting slot up front alongside a trialist. Matty Burrows, who has sat out pre-season so far due to injury, was named among the substitutes.
AFC TOTTON
Starting XI
1. Lewis NOICE
8. Adam TOMASSO
5. Charlie KENNEDY
15. Sam MAGRI
3. Jordan RAGGUETTE
4. Mike CARTER (Capt.)
12. Josh CARMICHAEL
7. Charlie DAVIS
10. Ethan TAYLOR
17. Conor WHITELEY
18. Trialist A
Substitutes
2. Leo TAYLOR
6. Luke HALLETT
11. Matty BURROWS
16. Alfie STANLEY
19. Trialist B
20. Owen PELHAM
On a balmy summer evening, the visitors began the game as much the brighter side, moving the ball quickly on the impeccable playing surface. Josh McCormick tried to feed Lucas Pattenden down the Bognor right wing. Ragguette read the situation well and made a perfectly-timed sliding tackle to send the ball out of play.
Ten minutes in, Carter won the ball in Bognor’s half and put Whiteley in behind the left-back to drive a low shot that keeper Ryan Hall saved with his legs. Hall was soon involved again, rushing off his line to beat Davis to a dangerous through-ball.
Totton grew into the game, partly through necessity as their visitors pressed them into quickening their passes. A crossfield pass from Magri enabled Taylor to encroach into the Bognor box from the left. He tried to square for the incoming Tomasso, pushing forward from right-back; Sam De St. Croix nipped in to nick the ball away. Bognor tried to counter, switching to their right flank, but the next forward pass was too long.
A strong sliding tackle by Taylor halted the visitors’ progress. Then, Ben Anderson’s long pass up the right flank put Pattenden in behind Ragguette. He sent a low cross into the area but neither of the white-and-green shirts in the middle could connect.
Clever interplay between Davis and the trialist on 18 minutes presented the latter with a shooting chance from the edge of the Bognor area, which he curled just beyond the top-right corner of the goal with the outside of his left boot. The hosts were properly in the game now after a slightly slow start. Ragguette clipped the ball up the left wing in the 20th minute. Anderson got something on it but couldn’t prevent the ball going to Taylor, who turned away from the full-back and centred. Whiteley tussled for possession with his back to goal near the penalty spot before laying the ball off, but his pass wrong-footed Davis. Carter forced play out to Tomasso on the right who tried to pick out Davis with a cross, but Bognor got the ball away at the second attempt.
Tomasso read a crossfield pass and headed down for the trialist to release Davis behind Bognor’s defence. He fired a low, angled effort which Hall got down to save.
The Stags took the lead in relatively straightforward fashion 22 minutes into the game. Carmichael won the ball in midfield, midway inside the opposition half, and rolled it forward to the TRIALIST on the edge of the box, who had the time and space to look up, pick his spot and stroke the ball beyond the reach of Ryan Hall.
Bognor’s attempts to settle into their passing game were hampered by the energetic pressing of Whiteley and Davis, forcing The Rocks to send the ball long, inviting Noice to come out and pluck the ball out of the air before Pattenden could catch up with it. Then, the Stags keeper rushed out of his box to beat the same player to a through-ball that briefly threatened to put the Bognor No.11 in behind Ragguette.
The Totton left-back reacted fast to atone for his own miscontrol on the half-hour, sliding in to prevent the lively winger Pattenden taking advantage from the edge of the Totton box. Then, the giant former Winchester City central defender Kieron Douglas strode out of his own half, batting away Carmichael’s challenge before using the outside of his right foot to play Pattenden in towards the right-wing byline. His low pull-back was met by ex-Saints Academy striker Tommy-Lee Higgs, who slipped as he struck the ball narrowly over the bar from about 14 yards.
Magri had to concentrate to put himself between Anderson’s right-wing cross and Higgs, who was lurking near the far post, to head the ball out for a corner. When the cross came in, the ball bounced across the penalty area but nobody from either side was able to make contact.
Higgs found a pocket of space about 25 yards out from the Totton goal. He twisted and turned to evade incoming challenges and then let fly with a dipping effort that had Noice diving low to his right to save at his right-hand post. Then, it was Carmichael’s turn to marshall the back post, after Pattenden and McCormick combined to cross from the Bognor right. Then, from a similar initial situation McCormick opted to drift infield and try a shot from outside the Totton area, his effort fading away to the left.
HALF-TIME
AFC TOTTON 1
BOGNOR REGIS TOWN 0
Jimmy Ball’s only change at the break saw Stanley come on in place of the trialist. Magri had to step across to divert the ball behind at the near post after a swift Bognor raid down the right, but The Rocks couldn’t capitalise. They were almost level soon after, when intricate passing in the final third resulted in Pattenden darting in from the right to centre the ball with a low cross. Carter made a sliding intervention to divert the ball away.
Tomasso then made an important block inside his own penalty area to quell a Higgs effort, after good work down the left wing from Jude Mason who, shortly after, found himself being shrugged off the ball by Carter as the Stags skipper then tried to send the scampering Tomasso to the right byline, but he over-hit the pass and it ran behind.
Diligent defensive tracking from Taylor had the winger dispossessing his opponent inside his own half. Then, Kennedy’s defensive header from a De St. Croix cross put The Stags on the counter-attack, until Davis ran into Douglas in the right corner of the Bognor box.
The visitors began to boss possession, again, and a slick passing move presented Craig Robson, pushing forward from centre-back, with a chance that he fired over the bar with blue shirts rushing him into a decision.
Clever play by Robson in midfield enabled him to turn sharply and loft the ball to inside-right for Pattenden to make another darting run in behind the troubled Ragguette. Noice was alive to it and claimed the ball before the winger could get a telling touch to knock it towards the Totton goal.
Substitute Burrows tracked Mason’s attacking run to pick the ball from the full-back’s pocket and turn it forward for the home side, once more. Then, Bognor created a good chance via Higgs’ lay-off to De St. Croix, who redirected it to the left wing for Kyle O’Brien to send a high, curling cross to the back post. The ball looped beyond Noice and Higgs headed back from the byline, but Totton cleared.
Pelham, on as a sub, disrupted Bognor’s next attack. Then, Hall had to rush to the edge of his box before Stanley could reach an angled through-ball. Dogged work on the right wing by Pelham resulted in him winning a free-kick high up the pitch. Burrows took it but Hall claimed the cross with confidence, despite the nearby presence of Hallett.
O’Brien took the ball under control on the Bognor left wing from the long diagonal pass. He was immediately set up on by two blue shirts, who swiftly dispossessed him to successfully nullify the threat.
Totton were content to fill up their own half while setting Bognor the problem of finding a way to play through their hosts. Craig Robson often carried the ball out of defence and spread the play to the left but The Stags were able to cope admirably, even if by this stage of the game tackles were flying in from both sides.
Pattenden was a constant threat from the Bognor right, but when he tried to run onto a pass into the box, Ragguette leant on him just enough to enable Noice to beat him to the ball at the corner of the six-yard box. Then, O’Brien found space on the left from Hall’s throw out and while Burrows gave chase, he couldn’t catch him. The cross was poor, though, enabling Noice to control the ball on his chest at the near post.
A quick move from right to left via Pelham in the middle in the 76th minute ended with Tomasso playing a short pass to Ethan Taylor, who cut in on his right foot and blasted over the crossbar with an angled effort.
Burrows had a sight of goal when Hallett’s long ball down the Totton right tempted Hall to come out of his box before the Bognor keeper thought better of it and retreated towards his goal line. Burrows had noticed the indecision and tried to take advantage with a lobbed shot that dropped wide of the far post.
Hallett’s next attempt to send the ball long was quashed at source by Bognor skipper Calvin Davis. The rebound squirmed across the Totton penalty area but Noice was alert enough to smother the ball before loitering white-and-green shirts could score.
Totton went two goals ahead in the 80th minute, when Tomasso won the ball on the halfway line and passed to Burrows in a pocket of space, shortly advanced of the centre-circle. With Ethan Taylor providing an option to his left and Pelham making a dash to the right to take one of the defenders away, a pathway opened up for Matty BURROWS to stride forward and strike a firm, rasping 25-yard shot into the bottom-left corner of the net, beyond the diving Hall’s outstretched right hand.
Tomasso and Taylor tried to get in down the left side of Bognor’s box. Pelham joined in and attempted a left-foot shot, but didn’t really get hold of it. Then, Robson and O’Brien combined to play Tom Hollands into the left-wing byline for the visitors. His cross had Noice back-pedalling before the keeper thrust his right hand up to push the ball over the bar for a corner. Once again, the delivery was good and the ball bounced on the edge of the six-yard box before Hallett lumped it away.
As the match entered its last five minutes, Totton were sitting back, soaking up the Bognor pressure, and they were almost gifted a third goal when Robson took his eye off the ball to allow it to run under his foot. Burrows sprinted after it but Hall came out to belt the loose ball away. It fell to Ethan Taylor on the halfway line, so he immediately went for goal with a long shot; Hall scampered back and dived to push the ball wide in the nick of time. Totton tried a short corner but it didn’t work and they conceded a goal kick.
Leo Taylor and a left-back trialist, both on as subs, made interventions late in the game to keep Bognor at arm’s length, and Carter took the ball away from centre-forward Jasper Mather, who tried to dance his way through The Stags on the right corner of the penalty area.
Mather fired over from within a crowded penalty area, after Tomasso, Carter and the left-back trialist had all thrown their bodies on the line to charge shots down. Just before the end, Ethan Taylor took a 30-yard free-kick which snuck under the defensive wall but hit another defender in the box, signalling the Referee to blow the final whistle.
After the game, AFC Totton Manager Jimmy Ball (pictured) said:
"I knew The Rocks would come here and give us a proper game, and find ways to test us, and they did that. There was a little bit of grit and some strong tackles, which is fine with me, and it felt like a competitive match. They had a lot of the ball early on but we were sensible and the players found their way into the game to produce an excellent all-round performance.
Bognor are a good team and we had to weather a few storms but we did it well. Lewis Noice produced another fine display in goal and his back four was strong. Mike Carter was close to his authoritative best in midfield and it was great to see young Matty Burrows back out there to score a lovely goal. He’s had a persistent injury that’s kept him out of pre-season so far, but he showed his class when he received the ball in the middle to counter and score a delicious rasper. All the boys love Matty and it’s fantastic to have him back."
By Ben Rochey-Adams
