AFC TOTTON’S quickfire hitman Robin Nicholls has played his way into starting contention for Saturday's Evo-Stik South West trip to Mangotsfield United.

The experienced midfielder, making only his second start for the club, took just eight seconds to put the Stags ahead at Fleet Town in Tuesday’s 4-0 Russell Cotes Cup quarter-final win.

That inspired him to a man-of-the-match performance alongside impressive 17-year-old Aldershot loanee Matt Bozier in the centre of the park, giving manager Louis Langdown a wealth of options for the weekend.

Reliving Tuesday’s astonishingly fast start, Langdown said: “Fleet had the kick-off, messed it up and had to take it again.

“They passed to a midfielder, Sherbs (Nathaniel Sherborne) closed him down and it bounced to Robin who sprinted past everyone and scored!

“That settled the nerves and we’d scored another in less than four minutes.”

Although Nicholls, Saints' academy football operations manager, has yet to start a league game since signing in November, it can only be a matter of time before he does.

“We saw what he was about in training when he tackled one of our strikers and left him in a heap on the ground. Adam (Wilde, assistant) and I turned to each other and said: 'He’ll do for us!' ” laughed Langdown. “He’s what we’ve been missing.

“He’s an aggressive player who gets round the pitch well and he picks up so many second balls to get us on the attack. He brings a bit of steel to our young group.

“Robin was excellent at Fleet, as was Matt Bozier, and he’s certainly played his way into contention.

“We made seven changes from Saturday (a 2-0 league win at Slimbridge) and it’s good when you can do that.

“We had lots of players who needed and deserved a game and we were even able to play Ian Oliver for a bit between his suspension.

“Connor York took a bit of knock so we took him off, but we’ve got a clean bill of health for Mangotsfield.

“Let’s see if we can score in seven seconds!” he smiled.

Totton, ninth, beat the lowly Mangos 4-0 at home in November.