Aldershot Town gave themselves too much work to do as a second-half comeback was halted by a resolute Forest Green Rovers defence.
The visitors amassed a 3-goal lead within the hour, leaving Aldershot Town with too much work to do as Ciaran Gilligan and Kwame Thomas setup a tense finish, with the Shots ultimately leaving empty handed.
FIRST-HALF
Forest Green took initial control of possession, looking to build from the back and progress out-wide. Will Nightingale saw his pass out from the Shots backline intercepted, leading to a scare as Jili Buyabi looked to punish the mistake, but was unable to keep the move going.
Down the other end, Kwame Thomas was awarded a free-kick wide right. Tyler Frost and Ryan Jones stood over the ball, with the former unable to get enough on his cross to beat the first man. Pat Nash, making his first league start at the EBB Stadium, showed confidence to Cruyff turn away from Aiden Dausch outside of his own penalty area.
Buyabu was the first player in the book for the visitors, dragging down Frost on the edge of the box, giving Ryan Jones the opportunity to cross from the dead-ball. The winger set the ball to the edge of the box for Cameron Hargreaves, who was unable to divert the ball around a sea of green and pink shirts.
Sam Inwood had the closest chance of the opening 20 minutes, getting his head on the end of a Kwame Thomas knockdown 8 yards from goal. The Bolton loanee could only head it into the arms of Harry Isted.
Forest Green opened the scoring just moments later, a misplaced pass by Ben Jackson found its way to Kyle McAllister, who calmly slotted into Nash’s bottom right corner.
Just five minutes later, Forest Green thought they’d doubled their lead, another error at the back led to McAllister being free on the edge of the box, his curved effort defeating Nash and rattling off the crossbar and eventually away to safety.
The Shots regrouped and forced a deep free-kick in FGR territory, the eventual delivery from the left settled at the feet of Frost and his shot took a wild deflection from a visiting, outstretched defender, nearly diverting it into his own goal.
The second goal for the visitors was a fast, flowing, back to front move, initiated by goalkeeper Harry Isted, and cooly dispatched by Jayden Clarke just seconds later.
SECOND HALF
A triple change came at the break as Kiban Rai, Will Armitage and Keane Anderson came on for Ben Jackson, Dejan Tetek and Tyler Frost.
Forest Green looked comfortable in the early stages, whilst Aldershot were able to threaten with one well worked move from the right, eventually finding Ryan Jones, who was booked moments earlier for a foul. The wingers firs touch took it slightly out of his path in the box, and a Forest Green defender was able to make the clearance to the frustration of the East Bank.
Ryan Jones continued to grow into the game, pushing the ball to the byline before pulling a cross to Kwame Thomas, who just couldn’t get high enough to put his effort on target.
On the hour mark, McAllister grabbed his second of the game. A clearance from Sam Inwood only falling to a pink shirt inside the box, who again found McAllister on the right of the box to slot home.
On the 68th minute, The Shots clawed one back, Ryan Jones saw his effort deflected past the goalkeeper, and the onrushing Ciaran Gilligan arrived to ensure it crossed the line, securing his first goal since joining the club on loan from Burton Albion.
Suddenly, the Shots looked reinvigorated, and the East Bank was sent into frenzy when Kwame Thomas tapped home a deflected corner to make the game 2-3 with 20 minutes to go.
The home side continued to push without really being able to challenge Isted in goal, with Ryan Jones and Kiban Rai both pulling the strings out wide. The visitors also looked dangerous on the break. Substitute Temi Babolola used his brute strength to get past Sam Inwood before squaring the ball across the face of goal, with no pink shirt able to make contact.
With 5 minutes of normal time remaining, Tristan Abrahams was brought on to replace Ciaran Gilligan, and with 2 minutes to spare, Matt Penney replaced Sam Inwood.
Five minutes of additional time were awarded, but the Shots were unable to cause any real danger to the Forest Green Rovers penalty area.
