OPPOSITION NOTES: AFC TOTTON

Gloucester City travel to AFC Totton on Monday, May 5 in the Southern League Premier Division South play-off final.

The opposition:

AFC Totton come into the play-offs after a remarkable season, finishing up in 2nd place in the Southern League Premier Division South on 88 points.

The Stags finished only three points off title winners Merthyr Town, and come into Monday night's fixture fighting for a place in the National League South next season.

AFC Totton are unbeaten at home throughout the 2024/25 season, and only lost four games in the league this season.

A big factor to why their season has been so successful is that they have four players in double figures for goals this season: Tony Lee (20), Scott Rendell (17), Ethan Taylor (14) and Charlie Austin (11).

As well as this, they had the best defence in the league, only conceding 35 goals in the league, 11 less than anyone else, including 16 clean sheets.

Their play-off semi-final fixture against Dorchester Town was a fixture that will live long in the memory, and has been shared across social media in the last few days for the drama it provided.

AFC Totton saw themselves 0-2 down going into injury time, but goals from Scott Rendell (90+1'), and Tony Lee (90+8', 90+11') saw them take the lead, but it wasn't done there as Dorchester equalised in the 104th minute of normal time through Jack Dickson to take it to extra-time.

Charlie Austin found the back of the net in the 119th minute to send AFC Totton to the play-off finals.

Head-to-head:

The two meetings between the sides this season have ended in draws.

We travelled to The Snows Stadium for the first meeting of the campaign back in October, Brandon Smalley opened the scoring in the 35th minute, before Ethan Taylor equalised in the 58th minute.

We then welcomed the Stags to the TigerTurf Stadium in February, with the match ending goalless.

The clubs have met once before, in an FA Cup qualification tie last season, with the tie ending 0-3 in favour of AFC Totton, which saw the end of Tim Flowers' time in charge of Gloucester City.

AFC Totton profile:

AFC Totton were founded in 1886. They are currently managed by Jimmy Ball, who took over in March 2022. They play at The Snows Stadium, also known as the Testwood Stadium, moving here in 2011.

They come into this play-off campaign trying to right the wrongs of last seasons play-off campaign, where they were defeated by Salisbury on penalties in the final.