Andover Town 1–4 Aldershot Town

Andover Town welcomed Aldershot Town to the Portway in a Hampshire Senior Cup second round match. Aldershot are a full time professional team currently in the Vanorama National league playing teams like Oldham Athletic and Notts County who were in EFL League 2 until very recently. Not that long ago Aldershot spent 5 seasons in EFL League 2 and in the EFL Cup played teams like Coventry City at the Ricoh Stadium. Incidentally several of their officials and coaching staff sitting in the stand commented on what an excellent pitch and facilities they found at Portway.

Kick off was on a crisp autumn evening and under the lights the playing surface looked immaculate and promised an excellent game. The first 15 minutes or so demonstrated how quick and how technically competent Aldershot were with end to end flowing football right from the start. Andover matched from the start and themselves were showing real skill and commitment, again the officials in the stand said what a good side Town looked. Town were showing real intent in this period and Ryan Griffiths, who incidentally is on Aldershot’s books, opened the scoring In the 15th minute. There was an element of fortune in the goal when a clearance from one of the defenders bounced off Griffiths and looped over the keeper which made it look like a superb lob. Aldershot’s wide men were looking particularly speedy and Ali Hatchem was in excellent form and consistently matched their right winger as well as frequently getting up the left flank into an attacking position. Now Andover really grew into the game and a series of great chances followed. In particular Ryan Griffiths was demonstrating to Aldershot what a fine young player he clearly is. In the 19th minute he held the ball up really well in the penalty area and gave Matty Morris an excellent chance which skimmed over the bar. In the 26th minute a good ball from Ali Hatchem on the left freed up David Jerrard and again the keeper saved well.

Andover were going really well as the first half progressed and would probably come to rue the number of good chances which they missed in this period. They hit the woodwork twice in close succession when Owen Trapnell hit the post with a powerful header and then Ben Emans broke well down the left and his cross shot flew across the goal and hit the far post. However Ben De Lacy-Turner the Aldershot number 11 punished a lapse in defence from Andover in the 39th minute and coolly floated the ball over Steinborn-Busse from 12 yards out. The half time score simply did not reflect Andover’s excellent play but equally illustrated just how many goal scoring opportunities were missed. Even the Aldershot officials in the stand, including their coach, said what good side Andover are and they seemed a little surprised about the standard of play which they had seen in the first half.

The second half saw Aldershot again breaking very quickly and in the 47th minute a defensive error let in Omar Elsa to score the second goal. The ratio of goals to shots showed that Aldershot essentially had 3 shots and scored 2 goals which was the obvious difference between the two teams. Substitutions followed from both sides and in the 65th when an attacker looked like he had been fairly tackled a very dubious penalty was awarded to Aldershot and De Lacy-Turner put it away with ease and in doing so got his second goal. The game continued at a relentless pace which could eventually tell with the fitness levels of the full time professional team. But again another defensive lapse in the 83th minute freed up De Lacy-Turner who scored the fourth goal and got his hat-trick.

The game ended 4-1 to Aldershot which did not reflect the quality of Andover’s play. Aldershot fielded essentially their under 21 team with some senior players included so no shame on Andover. The above average crowd of 275 seemed to appreciate the quality shown by both sides. Another cup match for Town on Saturday when they are away to Salisbury based Laverstock and Ford. Incidentally there has been some discussion in the Wessex League about encouraging matches to start at 2pm after the clocks go back at the end of October so that teams can lower their high energy costs by saving as much as possible on the use of floodlights.