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MATCH REPORT: FC Halifax Town 1 Aldershot Town 1 (A)

Aldershot Town played out a 1-1 draw away to promotion-chasing FC Halifax Town after a late Mikael Ndjoli goal saw The Shots travel back to Hampshire with a point.

It was a first-half that saw neither side able to create any clear-cut chances with the closest The Shots almost came to finding an opening coming in the 23rd minute.

Mikael Ndjoli was almost able to break through the Halifax defence, but a good last-ditch challenge from Halifax’s Pierce Bird stopped the Shots forward from being able to shoot inside the penalty area.

The Shots looked to kick on from this after, with Colin Daniel looking to cause problems from the left, with his cross-cum-shot tipped behind from Halifax keeper Sam Johnson a minute later.

However, the home side responded to this pressure from Aldershot Town with their best spell of the game, with a swerving volley from Jordan Slew in the 31st minute forcing a good save from Ryan Hall to deny the experienced forward.

Slew again looked to test Hall with an effort from distance acrobatically tipped away from the young Shots stopper just a couple minutes later, with Aldershot Town holding strong from the follow-up corner too.

With a minute to go in the first-half and Daniel again caused problems down the left, chasing down a loose ball before cutting the ball across as it made it’s way to Tommy Willard, who found the room to shoot in the Halifax penalty area, but his effort was well-saved from Johnson.

Halifax again responded to this chance for The Shots, with a succession of efforts and corners coming in just before the half-time interval, but the Aldershot Town defence were up to the task so far and saw the score goalless going into the midway point of the game.

The second-half saw Halifax start the stronger of the two sides with an effort from Kian Spence firing wide of the near post in the 55th minute, before finding the opener five minutes later with a long-range effort from captain Martin Woods.

Woods found space on the edge of the area and his effort from around 25 yards and his low drive saw Hall able to get a hand to it, but it was not enough to stop the strike finding the back of the net.

Halifax continued their spell of pressure with Matt Warburton able to shoot on the volley in the 73rd minute but his effort thankfully was way over the Aldershot Town crossbar.

Following this spell for the Sheyman, Aldershot Town started to create more opportunities of their own to equalise with recent substitute Harrison Panayiotou thinking he should’ve had a penalty in the 81st minute, but the referee waved away the claims off both Panayiotou and the Shots first-team coaching staff.

After Ndjoli created room in the 84th minute to shoot towards goal that was saved by Johnson, the forward would go one better three minutes later and find the Aldershot Town equaliser after a similar move allowed the 24 year-old to find the back of the net at the near post and score his sixth goal in the Vanarama National League.

Late spells of pressure came for both sides after this equaliser, but neither were able to find the back of the net again as the final score saw both clubs come away with a point apiece.

This result look to their final game of the 2021/22 Vanarama National League season, as they host Wealdstone FC at The EBB Stadium with fans of both sides invited to make the most of the ‘Shots Super Sunday’ event. 

FC Halifax Town: 1 S Johnson (G/K), 5 J Debrah, 8 K Green (C) (Woods 32′), 10 M Warburton, 11 B Waters, 17 K Spence, 18 J Swaby-Neavin, 20 H Gilmour (Dearnley 74′), 21 T Warren, 25 J Slew (Stenson 87′), 28 P Bird

Unused Subs: 2 J Benn, 16 J Thomas

Aldershot Town FC: 13 R Hall (G/K), 3 L Kinsella (C), 6 K Lyons-Foster, 10 J Berkeley-Agyepong, 18 M Sylla, 20 M Ndjoli, 22 G Phillips, 23 J Harris (Watts 65′), 26 A Saunders, 27 T Willard (Bettamer 76′), 33 C Daniel (Panayiotou 76′)

Unused Subs: 5 K Lokko, 7 A Whittingham