More About Aldershot Town
Aldershot Town 3 Bradford City 2 - League Two 2008/2009 - Game 4
This game has convinced me that City are going to get promoted.
Cause I was not sure before and I’d seen the Huddersfield game and I’d worried that against Rochdale we had looked a bit shaky and against Notts County we seemed to wobble but today losing to Aldershot convinced me we were going up.
Cause we had character. We showed character. We would not have even made a game of this in the last decade since we went out of the Premiership. This game would have been like all those get a goal, get thrashed that we have done. It would have been like Leicester City in 2001 but done at a lower level.
But it was not.
We took the lead when Joe Colbeck dummied a Paul Heckingbottom corner for Paul McLaren to score and that was the difference in a first half of cut and thrust that saw both teams look decent. Lee Bullock should have added a second but the girlie named Nikki Bull saved his close ranger but those two efforts were City’s only proper danger and I thought about the Rochdale fans moaning that they had more chances than us last week.
But the Shots managed what Rochdale didn’t. The lashed the ball at Rhys Evans goal and while the Stags staggered around trying to make the perfect chance this home side just needed the perfect hit which they got through Ben Harding who equalised with a twenty yard shot.
That when when City could have lost the game and would have done in the past but didn’t. Joe Colbeck led the charge back and got mercilessly hacked in the box for a penalty which Peter Thorne saw saved.
It was one of those reality checks. Not the getting thumped at home by Wigan rather than going top of the Premiership but still pretty bad. Peter Thorne can miss? Really?
Thorne did it again but by then things had got worse and City had seen Marvin Morgan stick the ball in from close range. This was a disappointment. Two minutes after the penalty miss and heads were down. Head picked up again though and quickly. The goal came when Aldershot got to the by-line and pulled it back. I hate goals like that and have a worry about Rhys Evans’s ability to command his penalty area.
Anyway Thorney should have scored. He got through and Nikki Bull swept the ball off his feet and for a minute he looked like a play who didn’t score with every touch but in truth and on another day we could have been 3-1 in this game then it struck me. On many other days we will be 3-1 in the game.
We created a bag full of chances but did not put enough of them away and they created some chances and they did well with them but a couple of times they were thanks to the kind of luck of the draw long rangers that sometime do for you but don’t work that often in League Two. Graeme Lee tried one and it almost worked but most of the time they don’t and don’t worry about losing to them.
Worry if you let in goals like the one Lee Bullock got to equalise. A well worked move ended in a close ranger header. Those are the goals that teams need to cut out at source and that you can defend against. You stop the other team having the ball in dangerous positions and you stop them working with it and when they get frustrated and try something that works one time in a thousand you have done well. That is what City did with and when Scott Davies whacked the ball back after a good bit of defending then they got the win.
But we got something else from the game. We got a load of chances and we got the knowledge that had we converted more of them we would have ended up winning. Four games down and we have three wins. Stuart McCall will want three points from home games and one from away and that average would give us eight. We have nine.
On to Port Vale with Leeds in the cup in the week. Vale fancy their chances but if we play like this we will carry on picking up the points on the way to promotion.
I’m certain of that.
Aldershot Town are on of those “When we were…” teams. They look at their current surroundings - back in League Two - and compare and contrast with City’s time in the Premiership. “When we were in the Vauxhall Square Third Division West this lot were in the Premiership.”
It is motivation and it is true. Teams like Aldershot and Morecambe have risen as we have fallen and to do so they have by in large been organised and managed correctly much as we were on our ascent to the top flight. They look at our high watermark and compare it to their low and it gives them spirit which we must overcome.
Aldershot’s return is welcomed. They are a club who suffered at the hands of disinterest and bad chairman but sorted themselves out and went the long route back to the League. The results thus far have been a win, a draw and a defeat at much fancied Shrewsbury and they are becoming known for a dogged resistance. They did have former Bantam Ben Starosta on loan but he has left the club. His name aside they are a squad of honest names many of whom have risen with the club.
Looking to rise with Bradford City is Dean Furman who signs on loan from Rangers but is not expected to start the game with Paul McLaren recovering from his dead leg to partner Lee Bullock in midfield. Expect Furman’s debut after an hour or so to bolster the often flagging midfield. Joe Colbeck and Omar Daley keep places on the flanks but as Chris Brandon returns to training Daley will feel the breath of a replacement on his neck.
The back five of goalkeeper Rhys Evans. Paul Arnison and Paul Heckingbottom as full backs and Matthew Clarke and Graeme Lee in the middle is immutable as is the strike two of Michael Boulding and five goal Peter Thorne although Barry Conlon’s five in one game in the reserves will see him sit on the bench with confidence.
Good teams, and the season so far suggests City are one, pick themselves.