Today’s game followed a poignant and fantastically observed period of silence as Aldershot Town’s Remembrance fixture. The EBB Stadium fell completely silent to remember those that made the ultimate sacrifice.
The Shots fell to defeat against Wealdstone as the Shots finished the game with nine-men as two very controversial second yellow cards were given to Dan Ellison and Aaron Jones.
The Shots started brightly as Jack Barham’s pressure deep into opposition territory was causing the Wealdstone backline plenty of problems in the early exchanges.
Wealdstone had the first sight of goal, though, in the 12th minute as Max Kretzschmar received the ball on the edge of the box and looked in on goal, but Dan Ellison did brilliantly to stick a foot in and clear the ball without bringing the Stones attacker down.
Jack Barham was again causing problems two minutes later and the ball found its way to Josh Barrett on the edge of the box and his backheel to Tyler Frost was smart but couldn’t be controlled by Tyler Frost and went behind for a Shots corner. From that corner, Cam Hargreaves had a shot on the edge of the box blocked.
The Shots were comfortable on the ball and able to bring it into dangerous areas but struggled to get much on goal to worry Jacob Adams, who had come on to replace the injured Sam Howes after just 20 minutes.
Josh Barrett was found on the left by Theo Widdrington just after the half-hour, but his powerful shot fizzed wide of the mark.
In the 40th minute, a quick counter-attack was started by Marcus Dewhurst whose throw fell perfectly to Tyler Frost’s run into the Wealdstone half. Frost beat his man out on the left with a couple of stepovers and found Hargreaves with his pull-back, but Hargreaves again saw his shot blocked.
Wealdstone took a lead against the run of play as the clock hit the 45th minute, though. Christian Maghoma was running away from goal beside Alex Reid who went down under minimal pressure and despite the Referee just yards away not giving anything, the Assistant Referee’s flag was raised and Referee Elliott Swallow gave a penalty.
Alex Reid himself stepped up and fired the ball into the roof of the middle of the net and beat Marcus Dewhurst’s dive to see Wealdstone enter half-time in the lead.
HALF-TIME
The Shots had an early chance to level the game in the second-half as Josh Barrett stepped up to take a free-kick around 25-yards from goal. His effort was across goal, but was slightly too high and wide as it missed the target.
A double substitution was made in the 55th minute by Tommy Widdrington in the hope that fresh legs would inspire a comeback, but in truth, the second-half was not the most entertaining of affairs for any neutrals tuning in to the DAZN enhanced coverage.
A huge chance fell to Max Kretzschmar in the 74th minute to double his side’s advantage as he was found unmarked on the edge of the box, but Dewhurst did fantastically well to stick out a leg and deny the Wealdstone attacker.
But, Aldershot’s hopes of getting back into the game were made harder in the 82nd minute when a handball from Dan Ellison about 40-yards from the Shots goal saw the on-loan defender given a second yellow card and an early bath. Having had the ball fired at him from close-range it would have taken a miracle for him to have not handled the ball and the decision was very harsh.
Tyler Frost was able to get a shot on goal in the 84th minute, but his effort from the edge of the box was blocked before another Aldershot defender was shown a yellow card in the 90th minute. Aaron Jones won the ball on the halfway line, but Referee Elliott Swallow deemed his challenge worthy of a second yellow card and the Shots had to finish the game with nine-men.
This allowed Wealdstone to score a second in stoppage time as Kretzschmar managed to find the back of the net on this occasion.
Attendance: 3156 (204 Away)
Shots lineup: 28. Marcus Dewhurst, 2. Lachlan Byrd, 5. Christian Maghoma, 6. Theo Widdrington, 7. Cameron Hargreaves (27. James Henry, 61′), 8. Tyler Frost, 10. Josh Barrett (24. Maxwell Mullins, 55′), 11. Ryan Jones, 17. Aaron Jones (C), 22. Jack Barham (23. Hady Ghandour, 55′), 35. Dan Ellison.
Subs not used: 18. Olly Scott, 21. Ashley Akpan, 25. Rollin Menayese, 34. Dejan Tetek.
Wealdstone lineup: 31. Sam Howes (13. Jacob Adams, 21′), 2. Jack Cook, 3. Anthony Georgiou, 4. Deon Woodman (26. Elliot Thorpe, 63′), 7. Enzio Boldewijn, 10. Max Kretzschmar (5. Alex Dyer, 90+2′), 19. Adrian Mariappa (C), 20. Sam Ashford (9. Sean Adarkwa, 73′), 21. Kallum Cesay, 22. Alex Reid, 25. Jacob Wells-Morrison.
Subs not used: 14. Micah Obiero, 24. Henry Sandat.
