Aldershot V Sutton - Match thread

[Del]

As local Boy hasn't started a thread for this i thought i had better do one.

Supposedly the weakest opposition we have faced so far but we never have an easy game at Aldershot. I expect Dos to change it around a bit to freshen up the side as he mentioned in his interview that its a tough August for the players.

[sol]

Aug 26, 2018 18:12:35 GMT Del said:

As local Boy hasn't started a thread for this i thought i had better do one.

Supposedly the weakest opposition we have faced so far but we never have an easy game at Aldershot. I expect Dos to change it around a bit to freshen up the side as he mentioned in his interview that its a tough August for the players.

[sol]

Looking forward to tomorrow. 3pm on a bank holiday - this time last year it was scorching hot @bromley 1-0 (C Eastmond). Last season 2-2 @the Rec was one of our best away displays in my humble opinion. We squeezed the life out of them in the second half and we were very unfortunate not to leave with all 3 points. I also got into a very rare dispute with a few local diehards in regards to my commentary - they thought I was biased in the way I described the second half, I shrugged my shoulders and said it’s all about opinionions this wonderful game of ours.

[markf]

Sol. Should have told them who you work for and their sense of fair play when broadcasting sport

[localboy86]

Aug 26, 2018 18:12:35 GMT Del said:

As local Boy hasn't started a thread for this i thought i had better do one.

We better not lose now!!

[blondemilf]

I just joined so hi to everyone. Having a large bet today. Shots are struggling.

[Del]

Hi & welcome to the forum.

[pinewalker]

Which is why you don't see many bookmakers in the dole queue, Blondemilf.

Up to the JC red card, U's were the better of two over-cautious sides who had no excuse for the poor passing. I shan't comment on the straight red until I have seen the slomo, but it came as a surprise, Skip hadn't committed one foul previously and there was no element of revenge.

The story of the team selection and opening starts with the toothless finishing (understandable in Ross's case) against Fylde, so why not start Tommy and Aaron? On this evidence it was a flop, Aaron did very little to lose his markers and find space as he had done when coming on against tired defenders. Nor was he able to kill a pass dead and shield the ball which is needed when the marker is on top of you. Tommy needs a slide rule pass to meet one of his runs, he did not get any. However the biggest disappointment was Josh - on the ground where he was MOM last time. He was not taking people on by running at and round them, and not able to find a team mate with whom he could exchange a pass.

It took a while for Aldershot to exploit the man advantage, and it was the absence of JC which led to the first goal. It was always likely Rendell would get the better of Dean once, but he did it with ease to volley home a centre from the left wing, 1-0.

What Dos thought of his team's performance was clear when Josh, Tommy and Aaron were hooked at half time for Kieron, Ross and Tom. That made Sutton a bit more effective but they seldom troubled the home defence. It was another absence, that of Dale Bennett at RB, which left a gaping hole for Aldershot's winger to cut in and shoot across Butler 2-0. That really did seem to have wrapped it up, but the officials conjured a twist. Aldershot had cleared a Sutton corner, most eyes were on the ball mid way in the Aldershot half, when Aswad - still in the box - appeared to be floored at a distance from the ball. After discussion the Ref awarded U's a penalty, Ross dispatched it and Aldershot survived a panicky few minutes.  What might have happened if 4 minutes earlier Ross had netted instead of shooting over an open goal from point blank range, is that on this evidence Shots might have conceded another.

The sending-off may have turned the game but it happened only after today's starting line-up had proved a great disappointment. The ref had a bad one, I'll leave Mark Frake to dissect it, he even yellow carded Dos for something said to the 4th official, probably an accurate appraisal of the ref's peformance.

[Andy K]

There's 1 or 2 games in a season when the refs performance directly affects the result. This was one of them.

The red card. Well bearing in mind it was on the far side of the pitch I don't think any of us could say conclusively yet why the ref chose that colour. Our bench on the other hand had front row seats and they protested pretty hard. There may be enough in there to appeal but which ever way you look at it it wasn't a great challenge. Maybe we could say that if skip had won the penalty (which to a lot of us was pretty clear) a minute before that may not have happened.

The facts are we lost to what I think are the weakest side I've seen all season. On paper though a 2 1 defeat at their place when we played for over an hour with 10 men isn't too bad, but for me a couple of the side didn't get going today. These are players that either didn't play 90mins on Saturday or didn't play at all.

We now play 1st place at home next Saturday. Only after that do we play a couple of weaker teams but were still only 3 points off top spot. If we're in that same position come start of April it's all good.

[Amber Aleman]

There are good awaydays and bad awaydays, and today definitely fell into the second category; our worst performance of the season so far, what looked to me an unwarranted red card for JC, and a 2-1 defeat against the poorest side we've yet faced, ending our unbeaten start.

This was the seventh game we'd played since the beginning of August, and the second in three days, so fatigue might help to explain the lacklustre showing. We started with a midfield diamond, but it failed to glisten, and, as mentioned above, the front two laboured in vain. With the team a goal and a man down at the break, Dos made a bold triple substitution with the aim of injecting more width and muscle into our attack. That didn't have much effect, and it wasn't until the last ten minutes that we put the home defence under anything close to sustained pressure. The consolation was the penalty, which Ross put away to make him our top scorer on three.

[VCLXI]

Well, that was a ball ache of a journey. Still, back home now but other than what has already been said that must be one of the most shambolic referring displays I have ever seen. Too far away from seeing the red after 28 minutes but well, after which Sutton deployed themselves well.

Not much else to add other than how poor is Aldershot's scoreboard? Far too many adverts and I can see when it is a throw in, even if the ref can't.

[Del]

This was a poor Sutton performance clouded by the sending off of Jamie Collins. We were not our normal selves before that and lacked any sort of width today. Ok so the right back change was enforced but i was surprised when Dos said that Clough has played there before. On about 25 minutes he had a perfect opportunity to cross the ball in with 4 of our players waiting and he opted for a backwards pass to Davis which came to nothing.
We were laboured in all our attacks and that move just summed it up. It was a most frustrating game to watch. Beautyman running his socks off but not achieving anything.
When are we going to see Wayne Brown & Jonah Ayunga. Ok rant over but very disappointed overall against a poor Aldershot side.

[johnnykwango]

Ridiculous ground that Sherpa Tensing and Chris Bonington wouldn’t have bothered the climb to get to.
Poor performance so no complaints.
Some home fans were vile, most of the others were worse.

Somehow £18/£20 is deemed worthy of an entrance fee to that place, good value if you enjoy monotonous drumming, if you don’t then swerve it next year. Hoping they’ll be in a different league next year, lower obviously.

[os]

You can't win them all, we have had 3 borderline decision go against us in 2 matches, the goal v Fylde chalked out, it was very very tight, the penalty not given today for JC having his shirt pulled off, and then the red card which as all will see was JC making a genuine attempt to get the ball. I think most refs would have given a yellow, but not Mr Brook.

Having said that we are not top of the table because our front men are slightly off the mark, struggling to score when we are on top, change that and we will challenge if the squad stays fit and not in the sin bin..

[sallycat]

Reluctant as I am to add to the chorus of complaints, I have to say those were about the worst away fans' facilities I've ever used. I wouldn't expect much better from a county league side, but for an ex Football League club charging that much to get in it's pretty poor.

I expect wheelchair users would have been allowed to use other parts of the ground and one cannot entirely blame ATFC for the geography of their ground, but a warning about the long walk, steep hill, uneven ground and steps might have been nice for those with restricted mobility, health problems or small children. Personally I found the walk quite pleasant although I did miss kick off because of it.

Having no access to a bar I suppose we can all live with. No access to any sort of shelter isn't so good. Luckily the weather stayed dry. A deluge wouldn't have been pleasant, especially for the very young and old.

But that's all just whinging really. What I was really unhappy about was the complete lack of toilet facilities. For a club of Aldershot's stature, portaloos just aren't good enough. There were no hand washing facilities whatsoever, no running water at all. You had to make do with a squirt of antibacterial hand rub. Sometimes that just won't cut it. Anyone who had mobility equipment or children would have been really stuck.

I really hope this is temporary and they are planning to improve their away end because it's pretty disgusting at the moment.