A magnificent defensive display in the second half meant goals from Josh Stokes and Haji Mnoga were enough to give a Tommy Widdrington-less Aldershot coaching staff a second away win of the season at Meadow Park against Boreham Wood.
There were two changes made to the side that were beaten 2-1 at Barnet, with Jack Barham and an injured Max Dyche dropping out the XI, Kwame Thomas and Theo Widdrington coming into the side in their place.
The visiting Shots had the better of the chances in the opening 20 minutes, with Lorent Tolaj proving a lot to deal with for the Boreham Wood defence. The first chance fell to Kwame Thomas, as he fired over from close range after a Tolaj effot was parried into his path, and Frost had the second, shooting wide from inside the box after being played in by Tolaj moments later.
Again, Boreham Wood were defending well against the Aldershot attack in the 20th minute, denying the visitors the lead for the third time in the opening 20. Theo Widdrington played a good ball over the top for the danger man Lorent Tolaj, and at an angle in the Wood box cut the ball back to Josh Stokes, who saw his effort blocked and cleared away.
Tolaj was doing everthing but score in the first half, and just after the half an hour mark had two chances to put Aldershot into the lead. The first came from distance, but his shot from range was catching practice for Nathan Ashmore. His second came from the resulting clearance, as Aaron Jones picked up a loose pass, and slid through Tolaj on the left of the Wood box, but he dragged his effort just wide.
After a lot of nearly moments in the first half, it finally fell for Aldershot in the 40th minute through the man of the moment, Josh Stokes. There were a lot of short passes in the Boreham Wood half, with the pre-asssit coming from Kwame Thomas playing a short pass to Cian Harries half way inside the Wood half. Harries then cut open the Boreham Wood defence, and played Josh Stokes clean through one on one with Nathan Ashmore, and in that position there would be only one winner, Stokes putting the ball into the bottom right of Ashmore’s goal to give Aldershot the lead.
HALF TIME: Boreham Wood 0-1 Shots
Much like the first half it was Boreham Wood who started the half the better, but Aldershot found themselves in a 2-0 lead 10 minutes into the second 45. Cian Harries picked up a second asssit of the day, admittedly this one not impressive as the first, as his short pass was to Haji Mnoga, who unchallenged darted towards the Boreham Wood goal, and from range let fly and found the bottom left corner quite emphatically to double Aldershot’s lead.
Boreham Wood halved the deficit on the hour, as a corner in left Jordi Van Stappershoef in a crowd of players, and substitute Angelo Balanta converted into an empty net from close range.
The hosts thought they had themselves level in the 67th minute, as Lee Ndlovu headed on to Tyrone Marsh who headed over Jordi Van Stappershoef, but after much deliberation between the referee and his assistant the flag was raised and the goal was ruled out for offside.
Under a lot of pressure, the Shots turned to the bench for the first time, bringing on Jack Barham in place of Lorent Tolaj in the 79th minute. The ball contiued to travel towards the Shots goal between their first and second change, as Tommy Willard came on for Josh Stokes in added time with the visitors trying to run the clock down.
Despite spending a lot of the second half on the back foot, a superb defensive effort from Aldershot meant the visitors held out to win the game 2-1 and pick up a second away win of the season. The attention now turns to Tuesday night, as Aldershot welcome Southend to the EBB.
Shots XI: 1. Jordi Van Stappershoef, 2. Haji Mnoga, 3. Ollie Harfield, 4. Cian Harries, 6. Theo Widdrington, 8. Tyler Frost, 9. Lorent Tolaj (22. Jack Barham, 79′), 10. Josh Stokes (27. Tommy Willard, 90′), 11. Ryan Glover, 17. Aaron Jones (C), 39. Kwame Thomas
Unused Subs: 25. Jack Bycroft, 5. Coby Rowe, 21. Ethan Burnett
