THEY gave every ounce of energy and commitment they had, but it wasn’t quite enough as AFC Totton’s dreams of a second successive promotion were shattered six minutes into extra-time at a tense Testwood Park on Saturday.
All the odds were stacked in the Stags’ favour in the BGB Southern 1 South & West play-off final, pitted at home to a Didcot Town side who had finished nine points behind them in the league and lost home and away to Stuart Ritchie’s third-placed side.
But as so often happens in the lottery of play-offs, it was the lower-placed team that snatched glory in a truly gripping winner-takes-all finale as Philip John fired the Oxfordshire visitors into Premier Division wonderland.
In a magnificent advert for Step 4 football, a fast and furious attacking game swung one way and then the other and the only shame of it was that someone had to lose.
The fact that it was Totton brought disappointment for their director of football Mick Budny.
But he was quick to acknowledge that the players couldn’t have given more in their first season as a Southern League club since winning promotion from the Wessex ranks.
“It’s been a long, hard season and no one could say these lads have given any less than 100 per cent,” he said.
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