Steve Riley can’t wait for Wednesday evening’s trip to North Leigh so his AFC Totton charges can get the “frustration” of a 1-0 home defeat by Stratford Town out of their systems.

The Stags saw a four-match winning run and their embryonic Southern League South & West Division leadership disappear despite dominating in the Testwood Stadium sunshine.

“We had the lion’s share of possession, but if we’d been there till 11 o’clock at night I couldn’t see us scoring,” Riley sighed.

“It was one of those games. It wasn’t for the want of trying on our behalf.

“We hit the underside of the bar when the game was goalless and their goalkeeper was man-of-the-match. It was really frustrating.

“I’m just glad we’ve got a midweek game, so move on and put this one to bed.”

Totton certainly did enough in the first half to extend their recent excellent run to a fifth straight win.

But Totton’s day of frustration was typified when Rob Flooks stole in unmarked and smacked an unchallenged 10th minute header against the underside of the bar.

“The ball bounced down on the line before they cleared it,” Riley added.

After that, an initially hesitant Andy Kemp, in the Stratford goal, repeatedly denied Totton.

Jamie Bulpitt and the creative Liam Gilbert both had goal-bound shots from distance turned around the post by Kemp, whose best save of the lot came minutes before half-time when a cheeky deflection from Zac Mouland was superbly dealt with by the visitors’ goalkeeper.

In between times, Stratford put virtually their only chance of the game away – the powerful Chris Sterling feeding off a pass threaded through by team-mate Alex Price to give Stratford the points.

“We got a bit sloppy, a bit lacklustre before half-time and made some mistakes – and they capitalised on it.

“They had a lot of experienced players and, once we fell behind, it was difficult. We just couldn’t break them down,” Riley said.

Totton often found themselves out-muscled by a physically minded Midlands side, who pushed five men into midfield after the break and gave Gilbert and his team-mates less space.

Nine-goal Craig Feeney was well policed and seldom got in the game.

Having seen four good chances go begging before the break, Totton ran out of ideas and got just one opportunity to salvage a draw in the second period.

But substitute Nathaniel Sherborne saw his effort go wide after Gilbert had cleverly created the opening.

“It was one of those days. We had a 450 crowd watching and it was a shame we couldn’t keep our run going, but all credit to Stratford,” concluded Riley.

AFC Totton: Mowthorpe, Hibberd, Bridge (Edwards 60), Onoufriou, Flooks, Gilbert, Bulpitt, O’Brien (Sherborne 55), Feeney, Mouland (Jennings 74), Hurst. Att: 451.