03/10/2026
STAGS SCORE FIVE IN CRAZY GAME.
Basingstoke Town 3 AFC Totton 5
Hampshire Senior Cup
The Stags took on Basingstoke Town from Southern Premier South in the Hampshire Senior Cup at the Winklebury Complex this afternoon. Like Totton, the Dragons have made a tough start to their league Campaign, they currently sit in 17th in the Southern Premier South. Totton needed a big boost in confidence following recent performances and results. The Stags have found scoring goals to be difficult in recent weeks. Scott Rendell would be looking to start putting that right, starting today.
The AFC Totton line up this afternoon was……..Black, Betts, Austin, Sims, Fleet, Lee, Wanjau-Smith, Rose, Ward, Vigrass, Cordner SUBS Hallett, Osborne, Mills, Chandler, Bennett.
When the game got underway the opening moments were very bitty. There was an early setback for Scott Rendell when striker Tony Lee needed treatment following a clash of heads. Lee had to go off and was replaced by Charlie Osborne.
Sims had the 1st chance of the game for the Stags, putting a shot into the side netting. Sims had another chance minutes later, after being played in by Ralph Vigrass, but his shot was deflected wide.
At the halfway point of the half the Stags took the lead when Tyler CORDNER headed home a Declan Rose cross. As I pointed out at the start of the report Goals have been hard to come by in recent weeks, hopefully this would give the lads a big boost.
Sure enough, just after the half hour mark Totton added a 2nd goal through Sol WANJAU-SMITH, who latched on to a ball from Ruben Austin and put a shot past Stoke keeper Rueben Egan to make it 2-0.
The Stags should’ve added a 3rd, when Wanjau-Smith was put through one on one with Stoke keeper Egan, and he fired past the keeper, but his shot came back off the post.
On 37 minutes Josh Sims received a pass from Reece Fleet and the former Saint fired home via the post and it was 3-0 to the Stags!
Half-time
There was an unbelievable start to the 2nd period when the Stags amazingly score TWICE in the opening 3 minutes of the 2nd period the 1st of those 2 goals came from Ralph VIGRASS who received a pass from Sims before unleashing a vicious volley into the Basingstoke net.
With the Stags next attack, they made it 5-0 when Austin found Christie WARD about 20 yards from goal and he fired low past Stoke keeper Egan. Stags goals have been rare over the last few weeks, now all of a sudden everyone in a Totton shirt appears to want their name on the scoresheet!
There was a substitution made by the Stags on 52 minutes when Josh Sims came off to be replaced by Luke Bennett.
On 55 minutes Stags stand-in keeper Keanu Black saved from Louis McGrory. Then Basingstoke had a sustained spell of pressure with Okine-Peters having a couple of chances.
The ‘Stoke’ pressure paid off when Tom Blake pulled a goal back for the Dragons with an emphatic finish on 62 minutes, the home side had been threatening a goal.
Basingstoke were quite perky for a side trailing 5-1, but 5-1 became 5-2 when former Stag Christos Papakonstantinou got his name on the scoresheet for the hosts.
Scott Rendell made further changes, bring on Matt Chandler in place of Ruben Austin, then a while later Mills and Luke Hallett came on for Dec Rose and Sol Wanjau-Smith.
Basingstoke were still plugging away looking to make the scoreline much more respectable and they scored their 3rd goal of the game through Billy Upton, making the scoreline look less comfortable for the Stags.
Full-time: Basingstoke Town 3 AFC Totton 5
There were plenty of positives to take from today. FIVE goals should give some of our attacking players a huge boost in confidence. It was good to see all the goals spread around the side. However, from being 5-0 up and to end up winning 5-3 is obviously a concern. We appear to be a bit ‘fragile at times’ and I am sure Scott Rendell is well aware of that, and I am sure he will be working on that issue. Fair play to Basingstoke for not throwing in the towel, to keep going when you are 5-0 down is not an easy situation to deal with ‘especially’ when you concede twice in three minutes at the start of the 2nd half. Many sides would have totally caved in after that. So, we now move on to a MASSIVE game at the Snows stadium next Saturday against Walton & Hersham in NLS. To say it is a must win is probably a bit OTT in early October BUT ‘IF’ you want to get away from the bottom end of the table these are games that you simply have to win. Let’s start putting our league form back on track.
