Aldershot Town made it seven games unbeaten and six in the league with a 1-1 home draw against rivals Woking FC, despite playing a majority of the second-half with 10 men.
The Shots made four changes to the starting XI that defeated Kingstonian in the FA Trophy last weekend.
Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain, Alfie Saunders, Ryan Glover and back from injury, Giles Phillips returned with Scott Wagstaff, Mikael Ndjoli, Ben Shroll and Jayden Harris all coming out.
Ndjoli, Shroll and Harris all took their places on the Aldershot Town bench ahead of the match too.
The opening ten minutes saw chances few and far between to begin, with an early header for Woking’s Tahvon Campbell the closest either side came to breaking the deadlock.
Aldershot Town responded to early pressure with a free-kick of their own 11 minutes in, but the away side dealt with it well as Woking looked to build on their slight early threat.
A wide Max Kretzschmar free-kick was well-dealt with by Aldershot Town 15 minutes in, before The Shots almost replicated a mistake at the back for the visiting side, with high-pressure seeing Woking’s Tom Champion just about able to clear the ball away from an onrushing Jacob Berkeley-Agyepong two minute later.
Following this, it saw neither side able to create too many clear-cut chances with Woking’s best opportunities coming from wide-free-kicks that were dealt with by the Aldershot Town defence in the first-half.
Aldershot Town looked to threaten from both free-kicks and Alfie Saunders’ long throw-in, but nothing came of either opportunity.
The best and final chance to open the scoring for either side came for Woking in the 41st minute, with Kretzschmar heading over in the Aldershot Town penalty area, ending what was an expected cagey first 45 minutes.
Aldershot Town came out for the second-half and created their best opportunity of the game so far with a strong run by Alfy Whittingham allowing the midfielder to roll the ball across to Berkeley-Agyepong but his effort whistled just over the Woking bar only a minute into the second-half.
The Shots had another great chance with captain Lewis Kinsella’s 30-yard goal-bound free-kick tipped behind for a corner by Craig Ross in the 53rd minute.
From the corner, Corey Jordan rose highest to head towards the Woking goal, but could only find just over the bar.
Things were made a bit more difficult for The Shots with young defender Saunders shown a straight red card following a strong challenge on the right-hand side, seeing Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain dropped into right-back and Jayden Harris introduced to the game as Aldershot Town finished the game with 10 men.
Despite playing with a player less, Aldershot Town continued to create chances with Kinsella finding Corie Andrews in the Woking penalty area, but his volley on the swivel could only find itself over the bar in the 63rd minute.
They would see their hard pay off late on in the game, with Kinsella driving forward into the Woking penalty area and earning a penalty off Woking’s Tom Champion, as top scorer Corie Andrews stepped up and smashed home the 10-men of Aldershot Town into the lead in the 86th minute.
The Shots looked to see out the game and almost doubled the lead with late change Tommy Willard’s cross-goal effort almost finding the far right corner, but could only bounce back agosnisignly back off the post.
Woking had created chances throughout the game and would see themselves level with minutes left in added time, as Max Kretzschmar stepped up for a penalty of his own in the fourth minute of added time as he smashed home a similar penalty to Andrews and gave both sides a point a piece.
The Shots are next in action when we visit Dagenham & Redbridge away next Tuesday.
Aldershot Town FC: 37 L Walker (G/K), 3 L Kinsella (C), 7 A Whittingham, 10 J Berkeley-Agyepong (Harris 60′), 11 C Andrews (Willard 90′), 12 C Oxlade-Chamberlain, 14 R Glover (Shroll 72′), 16 C Jordan 18 M Sylla, 22 G Phillips, 26 A Saunders
Unused Subs: 1 M Walker (G/K), 20 M Ndjoli
Woking FC: 13 C Ross (G/K), 3 J Casey (C) (Nwabuokei 65′), 4 T Champion, 5 J McNerney (Britton 87′), 9 I Effiong, 10 M Kretzschmar, 11 T Johnson, 16 L Annesley, 19 T Campbell, 21 T Block (Lofthouse 65′), 23 J Anderson
Unused Subs: 1 M Smith (G/K), 6 M Diarra
