According to the programme, this game had been played earlier in the season but had to be replayed after it transpired that Totton had played an illegible player unknowingly.
Amesbury were almost gifted a goal after quarter of an hour. A Totton defender headed it back with pace towards the goal but away from his keeper, who couldn’t get across to stop the ball. Luckily for Totton, it went just wide of the goal. From the resulting corner, the Totton keeper redeemed himself with an excellent save. This gave Amesbury a bit of confidence and three minutes later they almost took the lead through their own efforts. This time the keeper acrobatically tipped a rising shot from the edge of the penalty area over the bar.
Totton started to dominate the game with some excellent passing and movement around the pitch but the Amesbury goal was leading a charmed life. Several times the Amesbury keeper made some good saves to prevent a goal. Totton had a lot of pace in the team, especially down the left side, which they were using to good effect. In the 40th minute Amesbury gave away a silly freekick with an unnecessary tackle about 30 yards from goal. The resulting freekick was special – from this central position the ball looped over the wall and curved away from the keeper into the top left of the goal to give Totton the lead.
Totton extended their lead two minutes into the second half. The ball was played forward and ended up with an Amesbury defender who was facing towards goal. A Totton striker chased this seemingly lost cause and managed to spook the defender into slicing a clearance up in the air and over the keeper before it bounced down and then up into the top of the net.
On 60 minutes it should have been 3.0. A Totton striker ran through after a long pass that reached the Amesbury keeper on the right hand side of the penalty area first. He spilt the ball up in the air as he slid in which allowed the Totton player to head it forward. The header was a bit strong so he had to cut the ball back to get a decent angle on goal. His touch was poor and this allowed a defender to get back and clear the ball before the striker could hit it into the empty net.
A minute later and Amesbury almost got themselves back in the game with a shot that hit the post. A minute after that and Totton did manage to get a third goal. The ball came in high into the area from a corner and was punched out to the far side. It was then played back to the edge of the area and a Totton player skipped around one challenge before taking a shot towards the players who were still bunched in front of the goal. One of the Totton players put his foot out and deflected it past the keeper and the two defenders nearest the goal-line who were playing him onside.
It took Amesbury another minute to get a deserved goal back. For the first time in the game the Totton defence allowed Amesbury some space on the right of the box and one of their players ran through and hit a shot across the keeper and in.
In the 83rd minute the Totton masterclass in missing goals continued. After a great run from the Totton 10, he dummied both the Amesbury keeper and a defender to dive towards their left as he moved towards the right. Sensing that his onrushing team mate would be in a better position to hit the ball into an empty net, he unselfishly played the ball across only to see his team mate blast the ball over the bar from 8 yards when a low shot would have extended their lead. This sloppiness spread to the defence and Amesbury almost profited just before the end but the shot went narrowly wide.
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