Teamwork....

It’s funny how The Non-League Paper has suddenly woken up to the fact that Aldershot Town are top of the Blue Square Premier. ‘Young Shots have no fear’, Stuart Hammond proclaimed today, in a piece about the youthful exuberance of Aldershot Town. And he went on to acknowledge that seven of the starting line-up that destroyed Stevenage, a fortnight ago, were signed by previous manager Terry Brown.

So credit Terry for his signings, but how can one explain the difference in performance between this season and the last two….?

Kidderminster turned up on Saturday determined to go home with a point, after losing the previous three games…..and I guess 10 men across the last third of the pitch could be considered a pretty defensive set up.

A fluke early goal for Kidderminster was quickly balanced by a Danny Hilton tap-in. The rest of the game was then an exercise in patient build up and winning. Yes, the difference between today and previous seasons….Gary and Martin have the team thinking about how to win.

The ingredients are pretty simple…effort and control….pace and power….teamwork. It almost matters not who the players are on the pitch….witness the 6v2 demolition of Crawley earlier in the week (Setanta Shield).

And how refreshing it is to see players wanting to come onto the pitch, from the bench….and not hiding away, hoping they will never be asked to ‘strip off’.


On Saturday three substitutions ten minutes into the second half, saw the Shots look to improve on the effectiveness of the team performance. At this point Gary was not searching for better individual output. No, he was about to display a modified game plan, to achieve the winning outcome.


The team were more effective, and the Shots recorded their 24th league win of the season.

Torquay will be tough on Monday night. But Aldershot have come a long way since the naivety of the 0v3 defeat at the Rec in August.

Gary and Martin have taught the young team how to win games.