Aldershot’s long trip down to Cornwall to take on Truro City saw them and their incredible 176 travelling supporters heading home happy after a last-minute James Henry penalty rescued a point despite the Shots finishing the game with nine-men – of which one was injured.
Tommy Widdrington made one change to the side that had travelled up to Gateshead at the weekend as Charlie Penman came in for his debut in place of Jed Meerholz. Ben Jackson and Ryan Jones returned to the matchday squad after injuries as substitutes.
The home side started on the front foot and Kwame Thomas’ slip just seconds into the action allowed Truro to break forward and win a corner from which Tyler Harvey headed wide at the far-post.
It was a long day of travelling for the Shots side down to the south-west, but there was no sympathy from the Tinners who were putting the Shots defence under sustained early pressure via Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain’s long throw.
But after a pretty rampant start, the home side didn’t do much to seriously threaten Marcus Dewhurst’s goal and the game failed to provide a clear goalscoring opportunity for either side for some time.
Up the other end, Josh Barrett and Tristan Abrahams tried chipped efforts as Barrett’s was read by Aidan Stone and gathered easily and Abrahams’ was just over the bar.
The game changed completely in the 40th minute, however, as Marcus Dewhurst was shown a straight red card. In a controversial decision, to say the least, Dewhurst cleared the ball forward and after colliding with a Truro attacker, he was shown his marching orders and the Shots were reduced to 10-men as Pat Nash came on for his Shots League debut.
But that didn’t deter The Shots who were able to take the lead in first-half stoppage time. Josh Barrett’s free-kick fro the right wing found Kwame Thomas at the back-post who had shrugged off his marker to head in.
HALF-TIME
The second-half got off to a slower start than the first 45. Sam Sanders headed wide from a corner in the 54th minute as Truro looked to make their numerical advantage count.
The home side were earning a lot of corners and piling significant pressure on Nash, but the young Shots ‘keeper was holding his own and doing very well to break through the bodies in the six-yard box to punch clear or claim on multiple occasions.
Truro hit the woodwork just after the hour through their dangerman Tyler Harvey as he flicked on an Oxlade-Chamberlain long-throw, but in truth it was never actually a threat to Nash’s goal, which he had suitably covered.
Just two minutes later, though, Truro had their equaliser. Ryan Law cut in from the left-wing and curled a superb effort past Nash and off the far-post and in.
The remainder of the second-half was tough for the Shots who were being put under significant pressure by Truro’s 11-men, but to the credit of the remaining Shots 10, they were holding firm and defending well.
But things got even harder in the 84th minute as Will Nightingale went down after conceding a corner and was visibly hurt. And from the resulting corner, and with the Shots defending with nine-men, Truro scored as Tyler Harvey bundled the ball in from close-range.
Nightingale was limping and could barely break into a jog, but opted to stay on and do all he could to support his teammates in their efforts to get back into the game and even managed to leap up to clear a corner in what was an incredible show of determination from the defender.
The Shots were officially reduced to nine-men two minutes into stoppage time, however, as Cameron Hargreaves – who had been shown a yellow card for saying something to the Referee – was shown a second yellow card as he stopped a counter-attack.
There were loud appeals for a home penalty from the 2000+ strong Truro support as Dom Johnson-Fisher went down in the box, but the Referee adjudged the Tinners attacker to have dived and showed him a yellow card.
Which made the events just a minute later all the more controversial as Ben Jackson was shoved over in the Truro box and the Shots were awarded a penalty in additional time to the additional time. James Henry stepped up and scored a fantastic penalty that gave Aidan Stone no chance, despite diving the right way.
Somehow, the Shots had rescued a point from a controversial game that saw them play the final few minutes with practically eight-men.
Attendance: 2310 (176 Away)
Shots lineup: 1. Marcus Dewhurst, 7. Cameron Hargreaves (C), 9. Kwame Thomas, 10. Josh Barrett (23. Hady Ghandour, 68′) 15. Charlie Penman (5. Ben Jackson, 82′), 19. Ryan Hill (11. Ryan Jones, 82′), 25. Will Nightingale, 28. Archy Taylor, 30. Tristan Abrahams (16. Pat Nash, 43′), 32. James Clarridge, 34. Dejan Tetek (17. James Henry, 68′).
Subs not used: 6. Theo Widdrington, 18. Kiban Rai
Truro City lineup: 24. Aidan Stone, 2. Zac Bell (11. Dom Johnson-Fisher, 80′), 4. Will Dean, 6. Sam Sanders, 7. Yassine En-Neyah, 8. Dan Rooney, 9. Tyler Harvey (C), 12. Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain, 19. Rekeil Pyke, 20. Ryan Law, 29. Harry Kite (15. Luke Jephcott, 75’).
Subs not used: 1. Dan Lavercombe, 3. Connor Riley-Lowe, 14. Lirak Hasani, 23. Ben Starkie, 25. Shaun Donnellan.
