Oxford v Aldershot

Oxford United VS Aldershot Town

After an amazing night in east London on Wednesday i find myself still on a high the Sunday night i am writing this.

Let me start off my name is Rhys i am 19 and I am from Aldershot. As you may guess i am an Aldershot fan and hive been for around 12 or 13 years now and this is my 6th season as a season ticket holder. i have seen the rise of a club from non league into our rightful place back in the football league after the original Aldershot FC went bankrupt in 92 i have witnessed 3 promotions in my short time of supporting my club. i wouldnt want to be anywhere else on a saturday afternoon that the rec or as away fans will know it the EBB stadium.

Some intresting facts about Aldershot Town FC:

• This is the 20th season of Aldershot town FC
• We have never suffered a relagation in our 20 year history
• The old club won the first ever play offs in 1986/87 in what was a 2 legged affair final beating Bolton in the semis and Wolves home and away in the final
• In our final season the TV rights for the BSP were brought from Sky buy Setanta sports who created the Setanta shield (conference league cup) which was only around for 2 years the winners being Aldershot Town and ue to our promotion we couldnt play in the competion in the second season AFC Telford
• Until Crawley broke our record last season we had the most amount of points record in the conference 101 (the things money can buy you these days)
• We are the smallest town in the football league only just slightly smaller than Accrington

The Aldershot players you want to keep your eye on this season are Ben Herd, Luke Guttridge and Danny Hylton. Ben Herd puts 100% in to every match and for his efforts has been made this seasons club captain, Luke Guttridge made a slow start to his life at the club last season but after christmas he went on a scoring spree over the month of january and has been in the side when he has been fit and Danny Hylton is the longest serving player at the club and is now starting tofind his form Danny Hylton was all set the move to AFC Wimbledon last season however Kevin Dillon was sacked as shots boss and Dean Holdsworth had other ideas since then Danny has been on fire weather he's on the wing or playing upfront Danny has improved as West Ham fans will know the name Danny Hylton the man who knocked them out of the carling cup in the 89th minute.

Now the match

The game came to life 10 minutes into the match when Aldershot full back Antony Straker was red carded for being last man and briniging down Oxford striker Lewis Guy this gave confidence to Oxford knowing for near enough 80 minutes it would be 10 vs 11. The free kick amounted to nothing 20 minutes in the U's went 1-0 up poor keeping form shots keeper jamie young allowed allowed James Constable to put the ball over his head into an empty net and the shots now looked up against it.

Into the second half and what ever Dean Holdsworth said to his players it really seemed to work as the shots came back from the break with a fighting spirit and went straight looking for the equaliser and it came after a good amount of pressure from the shots Danny Hylton crossed the ball in for Luke Guttridge to fire home the equaliser for the shots and from there on it was all Aldershot Alex Rodman unlucky from 20 yards into the last 5 minutes and the pressure was coming from Oxford with around 4 corners in the last 5 minutes and you could tell the nervousness on the face of us shots fans.

Full Time bravely battled back from Dean Holdworths side the point was a hard earned point but its nice to once again have a point on the board.

My match ratings

Oxford Utd

• 01 Clarke            6
• 05 Duberry          5
• 06 Wright            5
• 16 Whing            5
• 04 McLaren (Batt 60yellow card)        5
• 08 Heslop (Potter 46yellow card)      7
• 20 Leven                           5
• 26 Davis                            5
• 09 Constable                     6
• 10 Smalley (Pittman 74)    4
• 27 Guy                       5

Aldershot

• 01 Young           4
• 02 Herd             6
• 03 Straker          3red card
• 05 Jones            5
• 15 Morris            6
• 04 Guttridge         7
• 07 McGlashan (Bubb 75)  5
• 08 Collins         8 (MOM)
• 11 Rodman (Pulis 86)   7
• 09 Rankine (Vincenti 15yellow card) 4
• 10 Hylton             7 

DH: Bigger result than West Ham kick starts our league
better side in the second half sustained a lot of pressure stood toe to toe with 10 men
bbc sport: how did you see the red card
DH: I saw the referee put his hand up and give him the red card
he made his decision at the time and we had to regroup at half time we are a good counter attacking side who enjoy the game to much
bbc sport: versatility in the squad jamie collins coming in and doing a job
DH: he was superb championship fitness commitment to each other fitness is key
bbc sport: luke guttridge back from injury
DH: great goal he took it well and deserved it he told me he would score
the goals will come and we really do look a good side


From Deanos analysis and my personal analysis we battled back bravely and i am very porund of my team for the way they performed in adversity.

As its still early days I predict: OXFORD UNITED WILL BE CHALLENGING FOR THE 7TH PLACE FINISH WITH THE SQUAD THEY HAVE THEY SHOULD BE UP THERE CHALLENGING FOR 3RD MAYBE. ALDERSHOT TOWN WILL FINISH IN THE TOP 10 FOOTBALL IS A RESULTS BUISNESS BUT ALDERSHOT HAVE HAD 5 GOOD PERFORMANCES ALL READY THIS SEASON AND HAVENT HAD ANYTHING TO SHOW FOR IT IN THE LEAGUE. Hopefully as well after the draw was made yesterday the Shots could sneak into round for of the Carling cup having knocked out West Ham at Upton Park and will hopefully knock both Carlisle and Rochdale out of the cup at The Recreation Ground.

Full Time Oxford 1-1 Aldershot
attendance 6673
Man of the match Jamie Collins

Facebook: Rhys Emberson
Twitter:Rhys9emberson

This was done with no input by me. The blog is missing posts from the Swindon game :O and Shrewsbury. Normal service will resume with Burton. Apologies