AFC Totton
Sheffield Wednesday were the latest professional football club to make use of the facilities at the Snows Stadium on Tuesday afternoon, ahead of their Carabao Cup clash with Southampton.
The Owls set off early from South Yorkshire on Tuesday morning, travelling directly to AFC Totton’s ground on Salisbury Road to undergo light training and put their goalkeepers to work on some catching practice. Unfortunately, the dreadful weather conditions that have continued unabated for about 10 days limited their use of the pitch during the two-hour session, before they departed for the Hilton Hotel in Botley Road, Southampton, overlooking the Ageas Bowl where Hampshire County Cricket Club ply their trade.
“We knew about the quality of the facilities here at AFC Totton from seeing clips online and from a televised match a few years back,” said Wednesday Manager Darren Moore (pictured above, second from the left).
“Lee Bradbury at Eastleigh suggested coming here and I know Jimmy Ball from my time as a player with Portsmouth playing under Alan Ball, when Jimmy was the Youth Team Manager. Being the same age, Jimmy and I used to play against each other at youth level, many years ago, so it’s great to meet up with him again.”
Moore’s team, who are currently third in the League One table with 34 points from 17 matches, were preparing for their Carabao Cup 3rd Round tie at St. Mary’s Stadium on Wednesday night. With the home side just having parted company with boss Ralph Hasenhüttl, might this be a good time to face The Saints?
“It’s difficult to know what expect, really. Sometimes teams get a bounce when a manager leaves. We don’t know exactly how they’ll approach it tomorrow night but we just have to focus on what we’re doing. It’s going to be a tough game, just because of the quality of players they have, so we’ll need to play well to get a result.”
An away win would make it back-to-back cup victories for Wednesday, who overcame Morecambe in the 1st Round of the Emirates FA Cup on Friday night, setting up something of a local derby against Nottinghamshire-based Mansfield Town in the 2nd Round, courtesy of Monday’s draw.
“To get a home tie in the 2nd Round is pleasing. Mansfield are quite local to us, so they’ll probably bring around 4,000 or 5,000 fans to Hillsborough, and I’m sure our own fans will be out in force for what should be an open, attacking game between two teams trying to win,” said Moore.
The Owls’ boss shied away from making any predictions regarding his team’s hopes of winning promotion to the Championship this season, suffice to say that he is happy with the way their league campaign has gone so far, before returning to the topic of the facilities at the Snows Stadium.
“This is the first time we’ve been here but we’ll be down this way again soon when we play Portsmouth. The facilities here are great, everything we expected, so we may well be back in March – hopefully by then, this rain will have stopped!”
By Ben Rochey-Adams
Image courtesy of Craig Hobbs Photography
