Time can be a great healer......

Just over a month ago fellow Shots supporter, Victoria Rogers, posted her thoughts on the sudden departure of our manager and coach to Wycombe Wanderers. And I have to say she sounded a bit down at the time ( see ‘It's a funny old game' - October 21st 2009).

So how is she feeling now?…..

A week is a long time in politics…

Harold Wilson once said that a week is a long time in politics.

And I’m sure like all politicians, he was thinking of his own survival when he passed the comment in the lobby at Westminster. But if he was concerned about just seven days let me say that a month in football can feel like a lifetime.

Yes, a month ago I sat at my computer and attempted to work through my feelings over the somewhat abrupt departure to Wycombe Wanderers of our manager, Gary Waddock and coach Martin Kuhl.

At the time it was hard to know how I felt. Surely sensible adults shouldn’t get worked up over things like football. Or should they, given that the majority of Shots fans felt betrayed and let down, however irrational that might seem now. And I was one of the majority..

But as the days became a week and the weeks turned into a month I have discovered the truth in another well-worn saying; time can be a great healer. A healing process that required me to experience a rollercoaster of emotions through the employment of a ‘caretaker’ management team, new acting chairman and the secrecy of the ‘new manager interviews’.

So a fairly quiet month really!

Then mixed in with all the off-field activity has been progress to the second round of the FA Cup, a couple of useful league points and, most surprisingly of all, three clean sheets. Yes no goals conceded. A pretty rare commodity in the free-scoring Waddock days. And didn’t we all celebrate the miserly reformation.

Meanwhile, Gary Waddock has struggled to get to grips with a shell-shocked Wycombe team, who are leaking goals through the spectacularly large sieve that parades as his ‘back four’….adding ‘schadenfreude’ to the dictionary of some still-enraged Aldershot fans.

I suppose none of this really proves anything, but after a period of uncomfortable turbulence perhaps we are now heading into calmer waters. The appointment of new manager Kevin Dillon gives us all something positive to focus on. An appointment that has returned us full circle.

Once again we are a team with a manager and coach. And all of this in just about the space of a month. I have no idea where the next few weeks will take us, but I do know that I’m going to be hanging on for the ride.

So what were we all panicking about? I’ve no idea!

Who needs a long week when a month can deliver such unexpected events.


Victoria Rogers – 17th November 2009

And following on from Victoria’s thoughts Aldershot secured a 0v0 draw at Notts County, a 2v1 win at home against Northampton Town……and another 0v0 draw away to Tranmere in the 2nd round of the FA Cup….