A Shot from Wales: Season's greetings to all supporters of League 2 Football Clubs.....

Passing shots........

I've been following football in Aldershot for just over 50 years.....

And not much has changed in that time. We were in the basement of the Football League for year after year....we went bust....reformed and found a new level, below the basement.

We have 'returned' and the faces are still the same, perhaps older but no wiser....the guttering above our heads simply older but no better.

But the Recreation Ground is surely one of the most emotionally evocative of all football grounds.

So as the 2011/12 season draws to a close I hope you enjoyed 'the journey'.

I reckon followers of Shrewsbury, Crawley and Swindon had a lot of fun, as they were all promoted......but will Crewe maintain their excellent end of season form for just another 90 minutes at Wembley, to secure the final promotion place?

And with Hereford and Macclesfield falling out of the League we will extend a warm welcome to the Cod Army (Fleetwood Town) next year but a somewhat cooler welcome for the return of either Luton Town or York City....

- A Shot from Wales

The final curtain......

Saturday 5th May and the Shots secured a point at Gresty Road, Crewe in a pulsating end of season game.

The 2v2 result enough to see the Railwaymen into the play-offs and Aldershot Town placed 11th in League 2.

It's been a funny old season....a few highs....plenty of lows....optimism followed by pessimism....but ending, well feeling pretty good.

In my first year at the Rec 1960/61 we finished 10th in Division 4 (L2)....like very comfortable slippers the Shots will never let me down.

Have a great summer.......

League 2 final days.....

The Shots could only manage to draw with Rotherham United (2v2) last Saturday in one of the best games seen at the Rec this season......Steve Evans and his assistant were typically 'ugly', but the Millers were a strong side and I think one to watch for next season.

The final play-off place should be resolved by our performance at Gresty Road, Crewe on Saturday..... Oxford will be praying that Deano has the lads fired up.

Macclesfield have been relegated..... and Hereford need a miracle to save themselves, sending Barnet back down to the Conference.

More cannon fodder.....

Prime Minister David Cameron has been very busy in recent weeks with his personal security plans….as the recently exposed rich seam of cannon fodder confirms.

Theresa May was not too difficult to find as she has always displayed a natural and flawless tendency to be useless but effectively persistent…..but now the Culture Secretary has put his career path in the way of the ravenous ‘hunt’.

And I fear it could soon prove to be a bit painful for poor old Jeremy as the hounds do appear to be closing in…..so was the performance of the Permanent Secretary in the Department of Culture, Media and Sport a portent for a call to the travel agent in search of an early summer holiday?

Jonathan Andrew de Sievrac Stephens has a very long name, but he is certainly not one to stand out in a crowd…in fact he wouldn’t be a feature in a room by
himself…..

If yesterday’s events in front of the Public Accounts Committee confirmed anything, it was that Jonathan will be overlooked by the ‘hunt’ but for poor Jezza, it’s not looking good….....

Aldershot Town 1 v 1 Dagenham and Redbridge

The Shots secured a point in a pretty dismal affair that was brightened up at around 4.35 by Neptune Collonges winning the Grand National......and for just a few hours my 2012/13 season ticket had been purchased courtesy of Eden Bookmakers, Hartley Wintney.

What followed was of course my big mistake.....on getting home to Wales I told my wife that her horse Giles Cross had been pulled up, but mine had come home at 33/1......

Up until my moment of madness I hadn't seen the Vet's bill, the farrier account.....

14 April 2012

Conference watch.......8/4/12

It looks like Fleetwood will secure their promotion to the Football League in the next couple of weeks, as Wrexham's form has fallen away disasterously over the last few months.....their early season promise is now no more than a distant memory.

The play-offs will be the usual tense affair with Kiddermister and Mansfield perhaps the teams to watch.....

Oh, and spare a thought for the supporters of Luton Town......another Conference season to look forward to?.....Ebbsfleet, Tamworth, Barrow, Braintree.....all great trips on a cold and wet Tuesday night in January.

Catch up......

27/3/12 Aldershot Town 1 v 0 Bristol Rovers....and the Recreation Ground welcomed back 27 former players to mark the 20th anniversary of the demise of Aldershot FC. Some great memories lined up in the centre circle at half-time......

31/3/12 Shrewsbury Town 1 v 1 Aldershot Town.....it could and perhaps should have been the first home defeat of the season for the Shrews.

6/4/12 Aldershot Town 1 v 2 Port Vale.....just a week after the excellent performance at Shrewsbury the Shots let themselves down on Good Friday, producing no more than a pretty dismal performance against an organised Vale.

''I nutted two Tories''

A Labour MP has been spared prison after admitting to a drunken brawl in a House of Commons bar.

Eric Joyce admitted four charges of assault.

The MP shouted 'You can't touch me, I'm an MP!' as he was arrested.

Joyce was fined £3,000 and ordered to pay £1,400 to victims at Westminster Magistrates' Court.

Eric Joyce also received a twelve-month community order, was banned from entering pubs for three months, and given a weekend curfew…..not good news for our economic recovery.

But Eric has said he will not resign as an MP before the next election in 2015…..ok Eric, understood….perhaps the sack would work!

League 2 Pub Watch - Northampton

Not much to choose from in the out of town location that is home to 'The Cobblers'. The sterile and featureless environment no doubt the fault of clever planners. And the brash, loud pub......was it the Hungry Horse or The Sixfields....I really don't care.....no more than a machine designed to destroy the senses.

The Last Word:

Now I have no real grudge with Northampton Town....but I do hope they get relegated because I don't want to have to return to The Sixfields....too many children...... Real Ale that was too cold......and just too much noise blaring from wall to wall TVs.

League 2 Pub Watch - Torquay

'Can I top you up Dave.....'

David Cameron has just declared war on booze Britain during a visit to a hospital.

The Prime Minister pledged to tackle the growing ‘scandal’ of alcohol-fuelled disorder when he met doctors, nurses, paramedics and local police………

Then oops…..Labour MP Eric Joyce finds himself suspended from the party following allegations of an assault in the House of Commons bar on Wednesday night (22/2).

According to reports, Conservative MP Stuart Andrew was head-butted and punched in the incident which happened in the Strangers Bar, a Commons watering hole reserved for MPs and their guests.

Another glass of Pic St Loup, Dave….

Conference watch.......07/01/12

With only 20 games to go to the end of the season the automatic promotion spot looks to be heading to The Racecourse, Wrexham or Highbury, Fleetwood Town. A win on Tuesday night, at home to Barrow, will see the ‘Cod Army’ move to the top of the table, a point clear of Wrexham.

Two of the remaining play-off places should be filled by Luton and York with the final spot going to either Kidderminster or Cambridge…..although Grimsby have shown some good form of late and might just make the cut.

At the bottom Bath, Hayes, Kettering and Alfreton all look doomed with Newport, Stockport and Lincoln perhaps hoping that those around them will continue to falter.

And finally will Darlington survive their financial mess and exit Administration?…..it doesn’t look good.

Christmas goodwill......24/12/11

Police have recommended that the Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne and his estranged wife be charged over claims that he dodged a speeding penalty, The Times reported today.

March 12 2003, Chris Huhne’s car is caught speeding on the M11 in Essex…….May 8 2011, a somewhat bitter and 'former' wife, Vicky Pryce tells The Times that someone else took the points….ouch!

And earlier this month Chris told Sky News: “I would love to see this cleared up as soon as possible. I want the Crown Prosecution Service obviously to get to the bottom of this”.

I would give it a few months before you book your summer holiday Chris……..

Home grown talent......

From our first season in the Football League (1932/3) to our demise in 1992, excluding the Wartime League, nearly 550 different players pulled on the famous red and blue shirt of Aldershot.

My wife reasons that the following disappointing fact can be attributed quite simply to 'the fault of the Army'......a few years in the Military Town and then Aden or Malaya....the Falklands or .....Colchester.

But it is somewhat sad to record that in 60 years of history only 8 Aldershot born players represented the Shots....but 20 players escaped the grime of south and north Wales to play at the Recreation Ground.

Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson offered a controversial opinion on those who went on strike yesterday on BBC1's The One Show:

"I'd have them all shot. I would take them outside and execute them in front of their families."

Clarkson attended Hill House School, Doncaster and later Repton School. By his own account, he was expelled from Repton for “drinking, smoking and generally making a nuisance of himself”.

Now that does surprise me……no, not the bit about being expelled, but the fact that he went to such a fine school, even if he did leave before the ‘final whistle’.

My wife doesn’t like him and I guess this recent outburst only serves to confirm that she is right….again.

Clarkson is simply an arrogant oaf who should be removed from our television screens with immediate effect.

Catch up.......

Beating Maidenhead at home in the FA Cup round one replay was never going to be difficult…..and a 2v0 victory was duly delivered leaving the Shots to look forward to a long awaited return to Hillsborough in round two.

Then on Saturday 26th November we suffered defeat at the hands of Paolo Di Canio’s Swindon Town in a match that showed just how poor football in League 2 can be…..we were awful and Swindon terrible. Terrible won 2v0. And I won’t mention the extortionate admission charge.....

Perhaps I will…….£25 is just a bit steep Swindon, you lost your place in the Premier League in 1994 and you should think about reducing your admission charges in line with the terrible standard of football we all suffered last week…....

I could have had a better start to the week…..even the coffee machine spluttered when Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, Ed Balls was interviewed on Radio 4…..smugly proclaiming how the Government has got it’s economic strategy all wrong.

Well Ed you could be right. Certainly your background suggests that I should listen to you.

Educated at Oxford University, Ed gained a first in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. Then he was off to Harvard, where he was a Kennedy Scholar, he specialised in Economics.

Balls worked as a leader writer for the Financial Times and was eventually elected to Parliament in 2005.

Ah yes, and Ed was an economic adviser to former Prime Minister Gordon Brown from 1994……..

I wonder if he ever took his holidays in Greece and Italy and Portugal and Spain and Ireland........

Nice work if you can get it.....

It looks like the disgraced peer Baroness Uddin will be back to work next April.

Good news for us all I suppose as to date she hasn’t paid back a penny of the £125,000 she was fined for cheating on her expenses when serving on the Labour benches.

With a tax-free attendance allowance of £300 a day she could pay off her fine in three years……I know it’s our money but give her a break…the empty flat in Maidstone could quite easily have been her main home……it just needed a bit of furniture!

Sir Alex watch......

Now I wonder why it took our club just over two weeks to determine the ticket arrangements for the forthcoming game with Manchester United? Surely it wasn't because United are fed up with ‘little clubs’ trying to make profit from their visit……by increasing the cost of admission?

The somewhat convoluted requirement to buy a Burton Albion ticket as well as one for the Carling Cup will clearly boost our income, but it could also suggest that all may not be as it seems.....

I’ll have a word with Sir Alex on the night…..I'm sure he will offer an opinion!

Accrington Stanley 3 v 2 Aldershot Town.... 1/10/11

It was the third hottest day of the year....and that was about the only thing that was exceptional....the rest was simply 'business as usual'.

Aldershot played out most of the first half with a fluency that was unfortunately absent in the second.

2v1 up at the interval and on track for the 'big' win that manager Dean Holdsworth has promised us all....two sloppy bits of defending and the points were lost.

I guess we will have to wait for Manchester United, in a few weeks time, before we see the 'big........'

But for now, a win at home to Macclesfield on Saturday would be good Deano.....

Carlos Alberto Martinez

Yes, the man who currently trades under the name of Carlos Teves, after he took his mother’s maiden name during a dispute between Boca Juniors and All Boys in Argentina, is up to his old tricks again.

It seems he wants to move…….make some more money……so he has decided to stop running around. I know, £250,000 a week doesn’t go very far these days.

Stick him in the reserves. Hold him to the remaining £32 million contract. Let him get fat and destroy his future value…..it will save you, Manchester City, in the long run.

And Newcastle United wrote off £5 million to £10 million when they let Joey Barton leave because he was too much bother.

The next Teves is already running around the streets of Buenos Aires or Barking……so take a firm line now City and do the Premiership a favour……mind you, do I really care?

Alternative conference watch........30/9/11

I knew the conference season had started when I couldn’t find a decent hotel in Llandudno a few weeks ago. I was in north Wales on business…..Plaid Cymru had bagged all of the best beds.

As for the rest, well it’s been pretty dire…..although the recent Labour Party conference probably did serve to prove that political researcher, Ed Miliband, will struggle to keep hold of power through to the next election.

I wonder if the new look Yvette Cooper will have the ‘Balls’ to challenge him…..worth watching I think.

Conference watch......

Bristol Rovers play at the Memorial Ground in Horfield, a suburb of the City of Bristol.

The Memorial Ground was built in 1921 for Bristol Rugby Club in memory of the rugby union players of the city who died in World War I, and rededicated to also commemorate the dead of World War II.

In 1996, the ground became home to Bristol Rovers.

Near to the stadium is The Wellington, taken over and completely refurbished by Bath Ales back in 2002, this large roadside brick-built pub is a pleasant 'feeding ground' for both home and away supporters…. with the emphasis on simplicity, real ale and good food.

Sir Alex......

I think Sir Alex and I have a few things in common….

We both go to a quite a few football matches every year and like Sir Alex, I recognise that the Languedoc region produces some very fine red wines….. my favourite is Pic St Loup, some 20km inland from Montpellier in the South of France.

Last week Sir Alex Ferguson accepted, when questioned by an ITV journalist, that Wayne Rooney could be compared favourably with Pele.

So here is my judgement: Wayne is an exciting player…..but it will take a few years of sustained achievement before he can be ranked alongside Best, Charlton and Law…..Moore, Charles and Eusebio.

And I have a sneaking feeling that Pele’s first World Cup goal for Brazil in 1958, scored against Wales when he was aged just 17, followed by a hat-trick in the semi-final against France and two more in the final win against the Swedish hosts; winning two more World Cups; scoring 1281 goals in 1363 matches and of course staying loyal to Santos for 17 years…..will always keep Edison Arantes do Nascimento way ahead of the rest.

Loyalty is such a confusing subject......

Asamoah Gyan is I believe a Ghana international who cash-strapped Sunderland purchased from Rennes last summer for a club-record fee of £13m.

Now I have no idea if he is any good….but the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi clearly thinks he has what it takes, because he has financed a £6m loan deal to take the player to the United Arab Emirates where he will turn out for Al-Ain FC.

Oh yes, and the Roker Park, sorry Stadium of Light, manager Steve Bruce isn’t happy…..’’I had a conversation with him 48 hours ago and he assured me, he shook my hand, that he wanted to be a Sunderland player…..within a few hours it seems things have changed,’’ Bruce said on Saturday. ‘’Football leaves a bad taste in your mouth sometimes……’’

Funny thing loyalty....so I guess Brucie simply forgot about the day in October 2001 when he said: ’’All the speculation surrounding Birmingham has been off-putting because it’s detracted from the players and what they have achieved. I could have done without it. I’m extremely happy at Selhurst Park. I want to manage in the Premiership and I’d love to take Crystal Palace there. End of story’’.

Ooops, two days later Steve walked out on Crystal Palace and joined…..Birmingham City.

Conference watch...3/9/11

Despite Fleetwood Town’s big spending….including the signing of Jamie Vardie, who arrived at the ‘Cod Army’ from FC Halifax in a £100,000 deal two weeks ago…they are eight points adrift of the early season pace setters, Wrexham and the 'surprise package', Gateshead.

York continue to be the ‘Arsenal of the Conference’…..just like the ‘Gunners’ they haven’t won anything and aren’t going anywhere….

The top of the table sees former League clubs Kidderminster, Mansfield, Cambridge and Darlington in close order with Luton yet to find any decent form away from home.

Lincoln are finding their new status uncomfortable and Grimsby, I fear, could be heading towards obscurity…..…

Dean Holdsworth is superstitious....

Look Deano... so am I……if I wasn’t, why on earth do I wear my ‘bobble-hat’ to all League and Cup games, park in the same spot every week…..and ......!

But please, we shouldn’t be playing in our away strip at home…..

Our current red and blue kit is, I admit, awful……and the all-white strip is smart, but it was our effort on the night that won us the match at West Ham and it was our superior desire that turned Carlisle over. Pace, tenacity, commitment, confidence, desire would always appear on my team sheet before superstition.

When we beat Aston Villa in 1964 we secured the famous 3rd round FA Cup replay victory in borrowed Southampton FC shirts. At the time, just like last night, it didn’t really matter…..we left The Rec shaking with excitement.

But as I get older and ‘look back' over my thousands of footballing memories it is the image of Aldershot, dressed in red and blue, that I want to call up and not one of the ‘Saints’ or Real Madrid.