AFC TOTTON bounced back to winning ways on Saturday thanks to a Portuguese wonder goal at Larkhall Athletic.

The Evo-Stik South West fixture had 0-0 written all over it until Nimes Pina – a distant cousin of European Championship final match-winner Eder – brought the Stags bench to their feet with a stoppage-time corker.

Pina, who works for Matt Le Tissier Natural Coaching, practised what he preaches by climbing off the bench to seal a welcome 1-0 win.

The 34-year-old was so excited that he was yellow carded by the referee for taking off his shirt and throwing it to the ground in celebration before being swamped by his Totton teammates in front of the visitors' dugout.

“What a goal!” smiled Totton boss Louis Langdown. “He picked the ball up about 30 yards out on the left side of the penalty box. He had loads of defenders in front of him, shifted to his right and unleashed a shot which hit the top corner.

“If we’d upped our efforts by ten per cent we could have won at a canter, but it didn’t look like it was going to happen.

“We put three up top for the last 20 minutes and to get that goal in the manner it came and the timing of it was fantastic.

“These Portuguese lads can be exuberant and it was a real exuberant celebration from him and us - the subs, the bench, everyone got involved.

“He (Nimes Pina) is a bit of enigma really.

“He does his coaching for MLTNC and really enjoys it. But, by his own admission, he’s not fit, but that’s because he works evenings and can’t always get to training.

“But he was with us on Thursday and, when he trains, we’ll get him involved.”

With on-loan Aldershot defender Jack Barker unable to travel after picking up an adductor muscle injury playing for his parent club, Totton’s signing of ex-Spitfires centre-back Jack Smith was timely.

The 20-year-old made a rock-solid debut at Larkhall having asked for his contract to be cancelled at Farnborough.

“Jack wasn’t getting much football at Farnborough and went on loan to Beaconsfield, but it wasn’t what he wanted,” said Langdown. “He could have stayed there on good money, but he wanted to play football and asked Farnborough if there was any way he could get out of his contract.

“He was nice and robust and solid for us at Larkhall and talked his way through the game. We defended well and a lot of that was down to him.”

Totton’s win puts them inside the play-off zone in sixth spot ahead of Tuesday's (7.45pm) visit of ninth-placed North Leigh.

“It nice to have a home game after a succession of away fixtures,” said Langdown. “Everyone is as tough as each other in this league, so we expect another hard game.”