Former Bournemouth, West Ham United, Blackburn Rovers and Charlton Athletic player Holmes presided over the humbling of the Stags – Wimborne’s heftiest ever Southern League win – having only taken the reins at the W+S Stadium over the summer.
Toby Holmes led the way that day by smashing in a 20-minute hat-trick, but when rivalries are resumed between the sides this weekend the 46-year-old manager believes if they are not careful it could be a different story.
Wimborne Town v AFC Totton
The Buildbase FA Trophy
Preliminary Round
3pm, Saturday 8 October 2016
W+S Stadium, Cowgrove Road
Click here for fixtures
By Jack Miller
The Magpies have made their best start ever to a Southern League season and sit seventh after ten games, and if league form is to be believed should not have anything to worry about with Totton inside the bottom three.
But after coming through a hard period for the club, which found itself in more than £100,000 of debt earlier this year, Holmes knows a run in The FA Trophy is vitally important.
“We played really well against them before and everything really came together,” he said. “Our passing was good, our work rate was great – but you can be almost sure on Saturday that is a scoreline that won’t be repeated.
“We had 11 players on the pitch who were all on their game and that, along with the attitude we showed, means you can win any football match.
“But Totton have got some very good players, and they had some early chances so if they had put those away it could have been a very different story.
Wimborne Town boss Matty Holmes, during his playing days with West Ham United in 1994
“Hopefully we can replicate that performance – as it was our best of the season so far – and get a good result because getting a good Trophy run is very important to the club in terms of prestige, finance, getting a buzz around the club and getting some of our players on the map.
“We went out in the preliminary round of The FA Cup which was a shame. We played well but it was just one of those days where we were never going to score, so we’d love to do well in this competition.
“As a new manager I’m proud we’ve got the boys playing football – we’re trying to give the club a new identity and things are turning around.”
Buildbase FA Trophy history
Since their first appearance in the competition in the 2010-11 season, Wimborne’s best performance came two years ago when they made the first round, sweeping aside Godalming Town, Dorchester Town, Northwood and AFC Hornchurch on their way to a clash with Oxford City. They do have a rich heritage in FA competitions however, having won The FA Vase at Wembley in 1992, and reached The FA Cup first round in their very first appearance back in 1982-83. Totton have also recently reached The FA Trophy first round, in 2012, but will be hoping to make up for crashing out at this stage of the competition last term to Tiverton Town.
Did you know?
This will be just Holmes’ 14th game in club management, having left a job with Bournemouth’s academy in the summer after ten years. He worked with every age group at the Premier League club, from the U7s up to U18 level, and forged a close working relationship with manager Eddie Howe. "Eddie was great with me when I was there," he said. "He always wanted me to stay, and when academy managers left he got me to look after the sides until they found someone else to take over.
"We had a great working relationship, but I got the approach out of the blue to come here and it felt like it could be my only chance to manage in men’s football."
One to watch
Star striker Toby Holmes faces a late fitness test ahead of Saturday’s clash, but Holmes is not worried as he has plenty of other weapons in his armoury. Sam Lanahan joined the club at the end of September, and the former Dorchester Town and Yeovil Town Academy starlet scored 24 goals from 31 appearances in the Wessex League last season for Blackfield & Langley.
"Toby Holmes scored a hat-trick in the last game against them and hopefully he will be fit as he has a few hamstring problems at the moment," said Holmes. "But we’ve just got a new lad, Sam Lanahan, from Gosport Borough and he is one to look out for. He’s had a couple of games since he joined us, and we have very high hopes for him.”
The prize
The winners of the clash will take home £2,500 and book their spot as one of the 64 teams progressing to first round qualifying.
