AFC TOTTON were outplayed by a buoyant Banbury United side who revelled in the wide open spaces of the Testwood Stadium to secure a 4-0 Southern One South & West victory this afternoon.

As expected, Totton were without Eastleigh loanees Tony Lee and Jack Alexander, who were away on FA Cup duty with their parent club.

Mike Gosney (knee injury) and Marc Diaper (work commitments) were also missing for the home side, but Nathaniel Sherborne returned from a spell out with tendonitis.

Banbury played a lot of passing football early on despite their over-playing ultimately costing them dear in a 4-0 defeat at Winchester City last week.

Ironically, though, it was from a route one move that they took the lead with just eight minutes gone.

Darius Browne dissected the Totton defence with a long ball which ran through to towering striker Ricky Johnson.

Stags keeper Steve Mowthorpe had already denied Leam Howards with an early block, but this time he was well beaten as JOHNSON coolly passed the ball home.

Despite some tenacious tackling by Sherborne, Totton still looked vulnerable and, following another long ball forward, Johnson came precious close to a second.

The home side responded with an 18th-minute burst by Nick Watts, but his shot lacked power and, a minute later, the Stags found themselves with a mountain to climb.

Yet again they were undone straight through the middle with Duran Martin this time slipping the ball through to HOWARDS who finished tidily from ten yards.

Totton had a let-off on 23 minutes when danger-man Johnson smacked the bar with a header from Zac McEachran’s free kick.

Opportunities were few and far between for Totton, but there was a glimmer of hope when Taylor Edwards forced a corner and, from Jake Rawkins’ delivery, Luke Dempsey flashed a header over.

But even that had a down side with Dave Allen sustaining an ankle injury inside the box. Thankfully, the Totton midfielder was able to continue after lengthy treatment.

The game took time to settle back down, but Banbury soon looked menacing again with Johnson turning his marker on the edge of the area before dunking a shot straight into Mowthorpe’s grasp.

Half-time: AFC Totton 0 Banbury Utd 2 The Puritans carved out the first chance of the second half with Browne chipping a shot over following a short corner.

Totton responded with their most promising move of the game – young Rawkins motoring down the left and delivering a dangerous cross which just eluded Sherborne at the far post.

But that promise quickly evaporated when Banbury went 3-0 up on 52 minutes.

It was a goal of painful simplicity from a home perspective with JOHNSON left totally unmarked to nod in Howards’ left-wing cross.

With United tails up, Howards then combined well with Browne whose shot cannoned off the woodwork.

Apart from an Edwards chance that he hit straight at keeper Jack Harding, Totton produced little of note prior to Mowthorpe getting two strong hands behind sub Lewis Joyce’s close-range blast.

The Banbury No 12 then turned and belted a shot straight into Mowthorpe’s midriff before firing wastefully over at the end of another slick passing move from the visitors.

Banbury had to hastily intercept as Sherborne looked to get a shot away from Neil Williams’ through ball but, on 86 minutes, JOHNSON completed his hat-trick for the visitors with a towering header from McEachran’s corner.