HAMPSHIRE COMBINATION & DEVELOPMENT FOOTBALL LEAGUE U23 PREMIER DIVISION
Wednesday 19 March 2025 | Snows Stadium, Totton | Att: 228

FIVE WITHOUT REPLY MAINTAINS MAXIMUM POINTS FOR YOUNG BUCKS

AFC TOTTON U23s                      5
Remus Nixon 6mins (pen), 69mins;
Harley Strange 64mins;
Connor Bent 73mins, 88mins

AFC STONEHAM U23s              0

AFTER 123 DAYS WITHOUT a game, AFC Totton U23s picked up where they left off at the end of November by maintaining their 100% win record in the Hampshire Combination & Development Football League U23 Premier Division by beating AFC Stoneham 5-0 at the Snows Stadium (Wednesday 19 March 2025).

Remus Nixon got the ball rolling with an early strike from the penalty spot, which proved to be the only goal of the first half despite the home team’s possessional and territorial dominance. New signing Harley Strange added the second midway through the second half before another from Nixon and two goals from striker Connor Bent put the gloss on a handsome home win.

New signing Sam Gordon was named in the starting line-up, operating on the left of midfield. Harley Strange, formerly of Baffins Milton Rovers, was named among the substitutes.

AFC TOTTON U23s: 1. Max EVANS; 3. Ben JEFFORD; 4. Zachariah EARLEY; 6. Leo TAYLOR; 7. Sam GORDON; 8. Dylan ANDREWS; 9. Connor BENT; 10. Owen PELHAM (Capt.); 11. Remus NIXON; 12. Luke HALLETT; 20. Sa-Sean LUTUMBA. Substitutes: 2. Dylan BIRKS; 5. Jack GOOD; 16. Harley STRANGE; 17. Will KEITA. Substitutions: Rolling. Yellow Cards: None.

Totton wore the first team’s cup kit of sky blue shirts, dark blue shorts and sky blue socks, and began the game attacking towards the Calmore Industrial Estate, against an AFC Stoneham side in their traditional all-purple kit.

Dylan Andrews had the ball in the Stoneham net early on but the flag went up on the far side for an earlier infringement. Captain Owen Pelham also came close to opening the scoring when, after having taken a left-wing corner, the ball was returned to him on the left of the penalty area and his curling right-footed shot struck the far post. Totton quickly regathered the loose ball and continued to apply pressure in the Stoneham box; Pelham was brought down and the referee pointed to the penalty spot. Remus NIXON sent goalkeeper Tucker the wrong way as he confidently slotted the ball home.

A strong tackle by Leo Taylor put paid to any intentions Stoneham had of bouncing back immediately, although the visitors should have equalised a few minutes later when they responded to a Totton corner by launching a counter-attack down their right wing. Male’s pass from half-way wrong-footed Sa-Sean Lutumba and allowed Elliott to latch onto it both 20 yards out. But rather than continue to advance upon the AFC Totton goal, Elliott went for an early shot that Max Evans parried, diving full-length to his right, before grabbing up the loose ball.

Connor Bent got his first real sight of goal when Nixon step inside from the left flank to head Luke Hallett’s long diagonal towards the penalty spot, where a well-timed challenge by a defender ensured Bent was unable to control it and get a shot away. Then on 19 minutes, Pelham’s corner delivery from the right-hand side was headed on at the near side of the six-yard box by Nixon and bounced at the far post where Hallett guided it past Tucker only for a covering defender to hook it off the line. Andrews followed up with a volley from the edge of the box, but Tucker caught it.

Neat control by Nixon enabled him to control Hallett’s cross-field pass and win a corner on the Totton left. Stoneham defended it well and it required Sam Gordon to track back at pace through the middle of the pitch to ensure The Stags didn’t leave the back door open for the visitors to exploit. Then, the alert Nixon was the first to react to a headed clearance from Pelham’s clipped through-ball, the lofty forward darting ahead of his marker to get to the loose ball first before shuffling it onto his left foot and driving a low shot from the edge of the area that Tucker got down smartly to save.

Hallett had a second chance to get his name on the scoresheet from another Pelham corner, when the central defender leapt highest in the six-yard box but guided his header over the crossbar. Then, sustained Totton pressure around the Stoneham box resulted in Nixon extending his go-go-Gadget left leg to pluck the ball out of the sky and tee-up Andrews, whose shot was smothered.

Bent had a low shot from the edge of the area saved, after running onto a flick-on down the middle of the pitch. Then, Lutumba took the ball off the toe of Stoneham’s Kirby, as The Purples threatened to level the scores from a set-piece. Stoneham captain Kimble was shown a yellow card for a foul on Taylor near the centre-circle, shortly before the half-time whistle.

HALF-TIME: AFC TOTTON U23s 1-0 AFC STONEHAM U23s

Substitutions are off the rolling-on/rolling-off variety in this competition. Sam Gordon came off at half-time and was replaced by Harley Strange in the totton midfield. Pelham received the ball within shooting range after a poor goal-kick handed possession back to Totton. The skipper went for goal but couldn’t keep his effort down.

Zach Earley linked up with Pelham and Nixon to build a promising attack, from which Bent was unable to latch onto the pass into the box but it came to Andrews at the right-hand post, whose low, angled shot was impressively repelled by Tucker’s right foot.

Pelham made a dash into the Stoneham box to head Ben Jefford’s long pass down to Bent, before a defender poked the ball away from danger. Earley came off to be replaced by Jack Good.

Totton doubled their lead in the 64th minute. Taylor fed Nixon on the left of the Stoneham box. A tightly executed drag-back gave Nixon half-a-yard to unleash a low shot that was deflected wide of the near post. Pelham’s corner was met with a glancing header by Hallett and fell to Harley STRANGE at the back post, who was left with a tap-in with which to open his AFC Totton account.

The typically all-action Pelham continued to pull the strings, often dropping deep to instigate attacking moves. His long ball into the box was headed square by Andrews for Nixon to attempt a shot on the turn; it would have been spectacular if it had come off but he couldn’t get a clean enough contact to trouble Tucker in the Stoneham goal. However, the forward was not to be denied when a Totton attack through the heart of the Stoneham defence ran aground against two defenders, only for the ball to pop loose to Remus NIXON near the penalty spot and he fired home his second goal of the night.

Pelham battled his way to the left-wing byline before his low centre was turned away by Tucker. Then, suddenly popping up on the Totton right, Pelham received possession at the half-way line and picked out the run of Connor BENT through the middle; the striker made up for a poor first touch on his right foot by improvising an outside-of-the-foot finish with his left that flashed past Tucker and into the bottom-left corner of the net, with 73 minutes on the clock.

Bent got through on goal again when he controlled a high pass on his chest and turned away from his marker, but his volley flew over the crossbar. Then, Hallett demonstrated his pathological hatred of late-night Aldi shoppers by launching a football at them from midway inside the Stoneham half of the pitch.

Jack Good won the ball for in midfield for Totton and slipped Nixon in at inside-left to attempt another shot that was deflected wide for a corner, which Stoneham defended well. But they were unable to prevent The Young Bucks helping themselves to a fifth goal when Pelham’s exquisite through-ball played Connor BENT in down the middle to place his shot into the bottom-right corner, for his seventh goal in the competition, leaving him level with Remus Nixon.

Next Up for the Under-23s: AFC TOTTON U23s vs WINCHESTER CITY U23s
Hampshire Combination & Development Football League U23 Premier Division | Snows Stadium, Salisbury Road, Totton, Southampton SO40 2RW | Wednesday 26 March 2025 | Kick-Off at 7:45pm | FREE Entry

By Ben Rochey-Adams