By Nathan Jackson
August 6 2010

Aldershot's emblem is a phoenix rising from the flames and the club have gone from strength to strength since reforming, now they're one of the forces in League Two and will again challenge for promotion this season.

Aldershot Town have been one of the better footballing teams since coming into the division in 2008. Their first year saw them continue a fine run of form at home, evening coming from 3-0 down against Bury to secure a point. Whilst their first season in the Football League was respectable, the second was even better.

Last season I had predicted Aldershot to finish 4th, something that surprised a lot of people, with one Lincoln fan even proclaiming that if Aldershot did finish fourth then he would run down the high street naked. They started the season well, only losing twice before they came to City on October 3rd and despite the Imps winning, Aldershot did control long spells of the game.

They continued in fine form and started getting involved in some very high scoring games, including a 5-2 win at Dagenham, a 4-0 win at home to Barnet and a 6-1 thrashing at Burton. They were certainly one of the most exciting teams in the division. They continued through the rest of the season without losing many games and did even flirt with automatic promotion. With a few weeks to go they sat fourth and the aforementioned Lincoln fan was a bit worried.

The Shots secured the Playoffs with a 3-1 win at home to Lincoln. City did take the lead but then a blistering seven minute spell from Aldershot saw them take a two goal lead. It should have been considerably more as Aldershot wasted numerous chances towards the end of the game. That was the final time they would win, or even score.

A trip to Morecambe resulted in a 1-0 defeat, if they had drawn then they would have faced Morecambe in the Playoff places instead of Rotherham. In what was a pretty even game in the first leg, it took a defensive mistake from the Aldershot defence to gift Rotherham their winner on the day, but the second leg saw a comfortable 2-0 victory for Rotherham, making it 3-0 on aggregate and their season was over.

Kevin Dillon (right) had taken over during that season after Gary Waddock had left for Wycombe Wanderers and Jason Dodd left after a few games. His record since taking over at Aldershot is generally mixed, winning 14 of their 35 games in charge, drawing 9 and losing 12, although four of those came in knock-out competitions.

He has seemingly maintained the same footballing style that the successful Waddock had installed at the Recreation Ground and Aldershot will seemingly be a force again this season.

In a random fact, despite having a winning record of 42.42% in League games, Dillon has the lowest winning percentage out of any permanent manager that Aldershot Town have had since their reformation in 1992.

Much like Waddock, Dillon has a good eye on the loan market and one of his more impressive dips into that market came towards of the end of last season. Dean Morgan joined on loan from MK Dons. He would score 4 goals from 9 League games, securing Aldershot three points during that time. Without those goals they still would have made the Playoffs, but would have faced Morecambe.

Dillon has added speed to his squad in the form of the brilliantly named Manny Panther. The midfielder has spent most of his career in the non-League, although he has been at Exeter for the past two seasons. He spent part of last season on loan at Morecambe. He joined Aldershot following on from his release from the Grecians.

Other incoming players have joined from various levels of football. Jack Randall has joined from Crystal Palace in the Championship, the aforementioned Panther and Jamie Vincent both from Exeter and Walsall respectively, whilst Damian Spencer joins from Kettering.

Aldershot have also signed Luke Guttridge, one of the more consistent midfielders in the division over the last ten years, having played for Cambridge, Southend and Northampton Town at this level.

Despite interesting from numerous other clubs, the Shots have kept Marvin Morgan (left). The tall striker scores a lot of goals for the Shots and have scored twenty goals in two and his 16 goals last term secured eight points for the Shots.

Morgan had a decent scoring record in the non-League, hitting 22 goals in 51 games for Weadlstone and 37 in 54 games for Yeading. He was reportedly a target for Keith Alexander when he was manager at City. Morgan got his break in non-league when Woking signed him in 2007 and he scored ten times in 42 appearances in the top tier of the non-league. He would join Aldershot a year later.

He may not be the most technical player in the division, but in terms of being awkward there are few better than he, and that's why he is a prized asset at the Recreation Ground.

Aldershot also managed to keep hold of Ben Herd, whom was their players of the season last year having joined from Shrewsbury Town.

Much like last season I fully expect Aldershot to be there or there abouts at the end of the season and I can picture them finishing second and securing automatic promotion. They are a club that have been on the rise and I think that given the right investment, they could eventually become an established Championship side.

Ever-improving Aldershot still rising like a phoenix?

Discussion started by theimps.ka (IP Logged), 06/08/2010 10:46

theimps.ka
06/08/2010 10:46

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