Following Tuesday’s narrow defeat at home to Chesterfield, Aldershot Town hit the road again on Saturday, for the trip to the SportNation Stadium to take on Solihull Moors. With the sides having already met in January (FA Trophy, 3-2 to Shots) and February (3-0 to Moors), the two sides will meet again for the third consecutive month. However, Solihull have had a change of manager since the teams last met and Saturday will be the third game back in charge for Mark Yates, who has returned for a second spell in charge.
In association with LV BET, Rob Worrall previews the game:
Shots Squad:
Lewis Kinsella, Craig Tanner and Ross McCormack are all making progress towards their return from long term injuries. George Fowler returned to play 86 minutes on Tuesday evening. Mitch Walker also returned on Tuesday after a three-match absence. Boss Danny Searle has no new injury concerns.
Opposition:
Name: Solihull Moors
Founded: 2007, via the merger of Moor Green (founded in 1901) and Solihull Borough (founded in 1953).
Nickname: The Moors
Manager: Mark Yates
Stadium: Damson Park
2019/20 National League Final Position: 8th (when season ended).
Awarded 9th position on Points Per Game (1.44)
The Gaffer: Following the recent departure of Shan, 51-year-old Mark Yates, current manager of Stourbridge (whose division has been declared ‘null & void’) agreed to take up the reins at Damson Park once again until the end of the season. In his first spell at Damson Park, with Tim Flowers as his Assistant Manager, Yates turned Moors from relegation favourites to play off contenders. Saturday will be his third game back in charge, with Moors having narrowly lost the first two.
Squad:
Former boss Shan retained 11 players from last season’s squad, most notably; Keeper Ryan Boot, Centre Backs Callum Howe and Alex Gudger, Midfielders Jamie Osbourne & Darren Carter and forwards Adam Rooney and Mitch Hancox. He brought in 16 new faces to rebuild his playing squad. They included; Defenders Jordan Cranston (Morecambe), Cameron Cox (Cardiff City), Midfielders Stephen Gleeson (Aberdeen), Joe Sbarra (Burton Albion) and Strikers Jamie Ward (Scunthorpe United), Cameron Archer (on loan from Aston Villa) & Centre Back Nathan Cameron, who last played for Wigan Athletic. Striker Kyle Hudlin, who was playing several levels below with Solihull Borough last season has stepped up impressively and he scored against Shots in January FA Trophy tie. Since taking over Mark Yates has also brought in forward Ryan Barnett, on loan from Shrewsbury until the end of the season.
Form:
Like many teams, Moors season has been stop/start due to Covid-19 and they still have 17 National League games to play. They currently sit 18th with 32 points, sitting 3 places and 6 points behind Aldershot.
Referee:
Saturday’s referee is Simon Mather who has refereed 14 National League matches this season, showing 40 Yellow Cards and 3 Red Cards to date. He has taken charge of both Moors and Shots games once this season.
Match Coverage:
The match will be streamed and available HERE. There will live Twitter updates from the game from the Club’s official Twitter account but, there will not be any BBC Radio Surrey Sport commentary of this match, however reporter Rob Worrall will be delivering pre, post and regular live match reports into Joe Talbot’s Saturday afternoon Sports Show from 2pm onwards, which will also include post-match reaction from Danny Searle.
