Aldershot Town fell to a disappointing 4-1 away defeat to Wrexham A.F.C. at the Racecourse Ground.
There were three changes made to the starting XI that drew 0-0 at home to Dover on Tuesday. Alfie Saunders, Mo Sylla and new signing Colin Daniel came into the line-up as Toby Edser and Sam Matthews took their place on the Shots bench, with Brad Webb not included in the match day squad.
It was the home side who started the brighter of the two teams, with Paul Mullin finding Jordan Davies in the Aldershot Town penalty area nine minutes in, but thankfully for The Shots, Davies could only flick his header wide of the far post.
Two minutes later, Shots keeper Dillon Barnes produced an excellent save to deny Mullin one-on-one with the Wrexham forward finding space down the Shots’ left-hand side of the penalty area, but Barnes was on hand to flick the goal-bound effort behind for a Wrexham corner that was eventually cleared by Aldershot Town.
Midway through the first-half, Aldershot Town started to threaten the Wrexham goal with debutant Colin Daniel driving forward down the left-hand side before whipping in a low drilled cross that forced Wrexham to clear away, with Willard looking to get on the end of it for an easy tap-in 19 minutes in.
Just after the twenty minute mark, Barnes was called upon again and produced another good save to deny Cleworth from distance from a well-hit effort.
Next, it would be Aldershot Town who almost found the game’s best opportunity with Alfie Saunders picking out Willard with a ball over-the-top as the young forward looked to control it and shoot inside the Wrexham penalty area.
But unfortunately, Willard was unable to get full control of the pass and Wrexham defender quickly swarmed him to clear the danger away before he could get a shot away.
The Shots had another bright spell in the first-half as a succession of crosses and corners looked to threaten the home side, but unfortunately no Aldershot Town player was able to get a shot away to test Lainton in the Wrexham goal.
Despite this bright patch in the game for Aldershot Town, it would be Wrexham who open the scoring as the returning Mullin found space in the Shots penalty area before firing into the far corner with a well-taken finish 35 minutes in as the Shots looked to respond in the first-half with 10 minutes remaining.
However, Aldershot Town were unable to create too many clear-cut opportunities in the final 10 minutes of the first-half leaving them a goal behind to hopefully respond to in the second-half.
It was a difficult start to the second-half for The Shots with Wrexham doubling their lead in the 51st minute as Jordan Davies found the back of the net following a quick free-kick that saw him able to shoot from just outside the Aldershot Town penalty area.
Things went from bad to worse for The Shots as Wrexham found their third in the 57th minute as Ollie Palmer found the far corner with a first-time finish after the ball was cut back to him by Callum McFadzean.
Sam Matthews was introduced following the third goal for Wrexham as Aldershot Town looked to respond to these two quick-fire goals, but found goal-scoring chances hard to come by in the second-half.
Wrexham found their fourth midway through the second-half with Mullin scoring his second of the game inside the Aldershot Town penalty area, despite Barnes reaching a hand onto the effort that found the far corner with 71 minutes played.
There was time late on for nothing more than a consolation for Aldershot Town, with recent substitute Matthews’ finding captain for the game Giles Phillips who headed home from close range to make the score 4-1, with The Shots looking to bounce back from a below-par away performance.
Aldershot Town are next in action in a week’s time, as they host Stockport County live on BT Sport with a 5:20pm kick-off.
Wrexham A.F.C: 1 R Lainton (G/K), 2 R Hall-Johnson (L McAlinden 74′), 3 C McFadzean (B Hosannah 74′), 5 A Hayden, 6 B Tozer, 7 J Davies, 8 L Young (C), 10 P Mullin, 30 J Jones,2 32 M Cleworth, 35 O Palmer (J Ponticelli 79′)
Unused Subs: 21 C Dibble (G/K), 12 D Jarvis
Aldershot Town FC: 35 D Barnes (G/K), 11 H Panayiotou (Matthews 58′), 12 C Oxlade-Chamberlain, 14 R Glover, 16 C Jordan (K Lyons-Foster 85′), 18 M Sylla, 22 G Phillips (C), 24 J Vennings, 26 A Saunders (J Harris 66′), 27 T Willard, 33 C Daniel
Unused Subs: 1 M Walker (G/K), 8 T Edser
