Match Preview: Basingstoke Town vs AFC Totton – Good Friday 18th April 2025

Match Preview: Southern League Premier South
Basingstoke Town vs AFC Totton
When: Good Friday 18th April 2025 Kick-off 3pm
Where: Winklebury Centre, Winklebury Way, Basingstoke. RG23 8BF
AFC Totton (The Stags), Avg 2024-25 Home Att 1,388 (?)
Last week’s solitary goal loss at Wimborne, with other results on the day, pushed us into the relegation places with just three huge games to turn it around, and pull us away from being doomed to step 4 football once again.
First up is AFC Totton, who we visited back in early September, and after falling two-behind inside ten minutes, we struck back and levelled within twenty minutes of the game, via Liam Ferdinand’s superb double. Despite a plentiful of chances for both sides, the game ended two-two.

Our Opponents
The Stags are managed by Jimmy Ball, who was the Assistant-Manager at League Two club Stevenage, prior to that he was interim Manager at Forest Green Rovers

Totton’s win last Saturday against Tiverton was about the only thing that helped Stoke last weekend, and with Merthyr’s capitulation to Poole Town, they sit in second, still with hopes of winning the title. The Stags record now sits at Pld 39 Won 23 Drawn 12 Lost 4 and 81pts. Their away record sits at an impressive 9 wins, 6 draws & just 4 losses. Their leading goal-scorers are Tony James-Lee & Scott Rendell with seventeen league goals each. Ex-Poole Town striker James-Lee, has maintained an impressive goals record throughout his non-league career, which began at Eastleigh before the first of three spells at Totton, as a loanee in 2015. He has also had spells at clubs such as Gosport Borough, Weymouth & Wimborne Town. Scott Rendell, is in his third season at the club, and known to live in Basingstoke. Rendell has played for a host of league clubs including Aldershot Town, Reading, Crawley Town, Cambridge United, Peterborough United, Wycombe Wanderers. Former Southampton academy player Ethan Taylor, has twelve goals, and has played for Sholing, as well as Gosport Borough. Add former Southampton and QPR striker Charlie Austin, has added nine goals since arriving from Swindon Town in May. Yet one more striker is Tom Blair, who has six goals, started his career at Southampton academy, then at Bridport, Dorchester Town, and other clubs such as Eastleigh, Weymouth, Havant & Waterlooville, & Dorking Wanderers.

The midfield contains the experienced Mike Carter, who also captains the side. Carter who left Gosport Borough at the same time as Charlie Kennedy (see below), has also played for Sholing & Havant & Waterlooville. Adam Tomasso joined from local side Blackfield & Langley as part of the swoop of players when their Owner upped sticks and took over at Snows Stadium. In January they added former Reading, Aldershot Town and Ebbsfleet United playmaker Craig Tanner. Roddy Collins joined the Stags in October, after captaining Chesham Utd to the league title last season. The Irishman, has played for a couple of Irish clubs as well as Hemel Hempstead Town, Hayes & Yeading United & Kings Langley. Collins has added two goals.

The defence will once again be marshalled by ex-Stoke hardman Charlie Kennedy, who joined the Stags in July 2022 after being at Gosport Borough and Salisbury before then. 33 year-old Joe Oastler is likely to partner Kennedy in the middle and has a wealth of experience having played for clubs such as QPR, Torquay Utd and Aldershot Town, before dropping down to the Non-league clubs like Gosport Borough & Havant & Waterlooville. Sam Magri, with five league goals will also earn a spot at the back. Magri, played 31 times for England’s U16 to U10 youth team, alongside the likes of Jordan Pickford, Arsenal forward Raheem Sterling and the former Southampton winger Nathan Redmond. At non-league level he has spent time at Dover Athletic, Ebbsfleet United before signing for Havant & Waterlooville in 2019. They also signed ex-Gosport player Richard McIntyre in October to support their promotion push. Another retainee is Luke Hallett who was converted into a defender by Jimmy Ball when The Stags manager was Luke’s boss at Forest Green Rovers in 2021. They also signed ex-Gosport defender Richard McIntyre in October to support their promotion push.
In goal will likely be Ryan Gosney, who joined the Stags in November 2024, after his penalty-saving exploits to deny Totton their promotion play-off whilst playing for Salisbury, five months before. Gosney, previously spent nine years at Sholing.

Our Basingstoke Town Side
We head into this Friday’s big match-up, with the understanding that we need to find goals, after another goal-less performance at Wimborne. Despite good periods of play and without that touch of luck, we fell to another solitary goal via an unfortunate penalty conversion. Our record now sits at a worrying Pld 39 Won 9 Drawn 14 Lost 16 and 41pts. Since that five-nil trashing at Tiverton, we have picked up just two points from six games, and with just four goals in that period, the strikeforce needs to create ways of finding the net, and how we do is the big question. Liam Ferdinand is our leading goal-scorer with fifteen goals, but beside him currently are George Reid (two goals), Robbie Gallagher (zero goals), and Jayden Brissett (two goals). Connor Barratt who was missing last week, has done little wrong not to be given a start, to see if a change of style, or at least change our fortunes in front of goal.

The midfield has still been strong with the energy of our two last signings, Joshua Green & Malachi Ogunleye, standing out since they arrived. I would expect James Dickson to be alongside these two youngsters, which depending on how we set-up, will leave both Ben Cook & D’Andre Brown once more on the sidelines.

The defence who has once again held the opposition to just one goal, will hopefully remain the same. Our captain Billy Upton, who picked up an injury at Wimborne, will need to have his boots hidden from him, for him not to turn out tomorrow afternoon. He will be part of a probable back five, with Jack Ball & Scott Armsworth, which leaves the wing-backs as Markus Johnson-Schuster on the right, and Lewis Colwell on the left.
In goal once more will be Simon Grant who has more than played his part in limiting the opposition to solitary goals in recent weeks.

So tomorrow we face the first of three critical matches, with firstly a need to score goals, which will then hopefully secondly bring us points, in our battle to stave off the unthinkable (Relegation).

Your support against an expected noisy Totton crowd is badly needed.

Match Preview by Martin French..