After last Tuesday’s controlled performance away at Weymouth FC saw the Shots win their third away game in a row, Aldershot Town will look to continue their winning ways on the road against Saturday against Barnet FC.
Hear what the gaffer Danny Searle had to say in full:
Q: Danny, another away trip away at Barnet on Saturday as we look to continue our good form on the road.
“Yeah, we’ve had a run of a few away games recently against tough opposition, I know the league position might not suggest so, but again it’ll be a difficult place to go as we talked about post-match on Tuesday.
“They’ve got a new management team in there and have made a couple of signings, new ideas and fresh thoughts in the building and they’ve obviously reacted well picking up a point. We’ve got them Saturday after they’ve had a good amount of days rest and able to do some work on the training pitch, so we’re expecting a tough game Saturday.”
Q: You mentioned the run for us, arguably some of the big spenders in the league and it’s important to come out with a good run of form and to be fair, we’ve done that.
“Yeah, it’s always tough, it’s almost like there’s two types of teams in the league, it’s like furniture, you can buy furniture that’s already made like already made players, or you’ve got to go and buy the materials and try and build your own because you can’t quite afford it at the moment.
“I think that’s what we’re trying to do at the minute, we’re acquiring the materials that we need to build what could potentially be a very good side. With that, unfortunately it takes more time, we haven’t got the spending power to be doing what some of these clubs are doing at the minute.
“It’s almost laughable at times, you check your timeline and see another player’s signed and another player’s signed, three at this club, four at that club and wow, it’s just crazy. I don’t know whether it’s the right or wrong way, I guess time will tell, however we’re not in a position to do that.
“We’ve got some fundamental materials that we think have got the potential to be really good unit, so we’ll keep working in that way.”
Q: And of course, the models you buy you hope to be better and more structural as well.
“Yeah, we’ve got to piece them together, that’s the difference, there are certain players, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re Premier League or National League, there’s certain players at that certain level that you get exactly what it says on the tin, within reason. Whatever you pay you get that in return, and we are currently unable to fish in that pond.
“Instead, we go for players who we’re pretty confident in and capable of doing, it takes a little bit of time to get into a run and rhythm. By all sense, I don’t think we’re there yet, I said that on Tuesday, I think we’ve still got a lot of work to do. Anyone who thinks we’re going to carry on to the end of the season playing the way we are, we know that’s going to be very difficult.
“The opposition we play against but also at times, players have bad days, and we take those days on the chin, but we’re pleased with where we are at the minute and we’re pleased with the progress the players are making.”
Q: Last weekend we started our #ShotOfPositivity and you continue to encourage that with us with the club and we saw that on your social media pages recently as well.
“Someone commented on a tweet I put out yesterday about clubs boycotting and I don’t think that’s the answer. As negative as social media can be, it can be positive and powerful, what we’ve got to do is make so much noise that it drowns out the negativity.
“The #ShotOfPositivity will continue, and we’ve got to make sure that we not only embrace it but we grow it and make it bigger, we want to share it and we want other clubs to be involved. I had a Woking fan engage with it yesterday, as bitter rivals are the clubs are on the field, that’s fantastic that they feel they can get involved in that because football is for all and everybody.
“The more we can flood the market with positive stuff, the more chance we’ve got of creating an environment where the first thought is to say something nice about someone opposed to bringing them down and saying something quite derogatory.
“If we can continue that and play our part, that’s definitely something I’d like to be a part of.”
Q: Speaking back on the football, 3 clean sheets in our last 3 away games, from a defensive point of view it must be great for you to see that in a look to push up the table.
“We’ve been up there or there abouts all season from a goal scoring perspective and chances created, we’ve not really struggled in those areas, yes there’s been games we haven’t scored in but all in all we’ve looked very dangerous going forward and we have had to sure it up at the back.
“Credit to the back five, Jamie coming back into the side he’s led it well alongside Kodi they’re building a great relationship hitting a great run of form, having George fit again and Mitch, they’ve all played a massive part. Alongside that, the midfielders and forwards understand what we’re trying to do as well and it seems to be working at the minute, it’s not perfect and not where we want it to be at the moment but it’s getting there.
“As you said, having three away clean sheets in a row that definitely helps the players to recognise what we are trying to do works if we can do it properly.”
Q: Of course, with the game on Saturday, an away game at Barnet and with our away form we continue that but along with our home form we hope to go higher up.
“In a normal season you want your home form to be good because that’s where your home fans are and where you want your bigger crowds but because the way the season has fallen, we don’t care where the points come from, along as we get the points we want and need and we’re hitting the targets that we are setting ourselves.
“What would be the easiest option is for the players to just win every game, yeah that would be nice and then you haven’t got to worry about home or away form but it’s not as easy as that. We want to keep winning games and I want it to be spoken about as form whether that be home or away, let’s just hit a run of form where we’re hard to beat wherever we are.”
Q: Another positive, Craig was back on the pitch for the first time on Tuesday, Kins continues to make his recovery, what’s the latest on them and other players as well.
“Yeah, Kins is basically there, he’s come back into the team and fair play to Shadrach, he’s nabbed his spot at the minute and Kins knows that, I was with him in the office today and he’s fully respectful of that. Craig’s a little bit different, we’ll have to dip him in and dip him out, pardon the pun but we definitely can’t run before we can walk, we need to make sure he’s right, because it’s not just about the next two or three games, it’s about his career.
“(Alex) Finney is recovering well, he’s got a long way to go but he’s recovering well. Alfy (Whittingham) was out doing a bit today so hopefully he won’t be too long and I’m looking forward to getting him back in the side and giving me even more headaches.”
Q: Finishing off with Barnet, when we played them here we went 1-0 down, took a lot of character to come back and win it 2-1, we’ll be hoping for an impressive performance on Saturday.
“Yeah, we want to win the game, we go there full of confidence, but as I’ve said it’s going to be difficult because we’ve watched their last game they had with their new management and they’re a little bit different to what they were, they’re more resilient, they kept a clean sheet, things that they weren’t doing before they’re now doing.
“We know that we’re a match for anybody when we turn up.”
You can also sign up for the Barnet FC streaming service which starts around kick-off at 12:00pm on Saturday HERE.
You can the full interview on our official YouTube channel HERE!
