United 3
(Morgan 14′, Young 33′, Jay 70′)
AFC Totton 1
(Lee 31′)
United overcame Totton on Tuesday evening to maintain their winning record at Plainmoor.
Dylan Morgan’s first goal for the Club opened the scoring, prior to a Tony Lee effort being swiftly cancelled out by Jordan Young’s corner. Matt Jay marked his first start of 2025/26 with a classy goal to make it 3-1 after the break, and that proved to be enough for the men in yellow.
Boss Paul Wotton made three changes to the side that drew 1-1 at Maidstone three days ago, with Ed Palmer, Munashe Sundire and Jay taking the places of Jordan Dyer, Sonny Blu Lo-Everton and Louis Dennis.
United started brightly, however, it was only after suffering the scare of former Gull Scott Rendell missing a golden opportunity to give the visitors the lead that Torquay broke the deadlock.
Having already served notice of his intention to be a nuisance to Totton, Morgan picked up possession and fired home low from the edge of the box to put Wotton’s men into the lead.
The Gulls continued to boss proceedings, and it was therefore something of a shock when the visiting Stags drew level just past the hour mark.
An inswinging corner caused chaos inside The Gulls’ penalty area, and despite a number of attempts to get the ball off the line, Lee eventually bundled home to make it 1-1.
No matter, as moments later, a corner of Torquay’s own saw Young’s delivery flash off a despairing defender, and past goalkeeper Ryan Gosney to make it 2-1 to United at the break.
Totton showed plenty of spirit after the restart, and created – and missed – a couple of decent chances to restore parity.
Cody Cooke went close to extending the lead too, but now Wotton’s side were tasked with soaking up some pressure after an almost one-way first 45.
With twenty minutes to go though, a moment of MJ magic put his side two goals clear.
A deep free-kick was sent into the Totton penalty area, and after seeing the ball drop down, the Gulls forward smashed in a powerful volley inside the near-post, despite Gosney’s best efforts.
On a night when United needed to dig in, it was a very welcome goal.
Thereafter, United did their jobs with relative ease in order to preserve their lead, and the final whistle signalled a very welcome – but hard-earned – three points.
Onto Horsham.
UNITED: 1. James Hamon, 3 Jay Foulston, 5. Sam Dreyer, 6. Munashe Sundire, 8. Jordan Young (4. Jordan Dyer, 57′), 9. Cody Cooke, 11. Dylan Morgan (20. Dan Hayfield, HT), 16. Ed Palmer, 18. Matt Worthington (c), 26. Jordan Thomas, 27. Matt Jay (15. Jadyn Crosbie, 87′).
SUBS NOT USED: 13. Matt Wonnacott (GK), 29. Aidan Edwards.
AFC TOTTON: 13. Ryan Gosney, 2. Joe Oastler, 7. Ashley Clarke (11. Malachi Linton, HT), 9. Scott Rendell (c) (29. Hisham Kasimu, 74′), 10. Tony Lee (17. Declan Rose, 87′), 19. Christie Ward, 20. Ryan Jackson, 21. Christos Batzelis, 23. Ralph Vigrass (5. Luke Hallett, HT), 26. Tyler Cordner, 27. Craig Tanner.
SUBS NOT USED: 1. Max Evans (GK), 22. Luke Bennett.
Yellow Card: Clarke 39′, Lee 61′, Tanner 70′
Attendance: 3,433 (74 away)
