Aldershot Town 4-3 Farsley Celtic
Saturday 22nd September 2007
Blue Square Premier
The Recreation Ground, High Street, Aldershot, Hampshire, GU11 1TW,
England
Attendance: 2,334




ALDERSHOT TOWN FOOTBALL CLUB GOALSCORERS: Rob Elvins (30th minute),
John Grant (47th minute, 84th minute), Ricky Newman (60th minute).
FARSLEY CELTIC GOALSCORERS: Gareth Grant (52nd minute), Colin Heath
(55th minute), Stephen Downes (79th minute - PENALTY).




TEAMS:
ATFC: Bull, Davies, Day (Newman 58), Winfield, Straker, Gier,
Chalmers, Harding, Soares, Elvins, John Grant.
FARSLEY CELTIC: Morgan, Downes, Jackson, Iqbal, Carl Serrant, Knowles
(Camfield 71), Billy, Grant, Stamer (Allanson 68), Reeves, Heath
(Bambrook 75).




TABLE AFTER THE GAME:
Blue Square Premier Table
22 September 2007 16:58
    P GD PTS

1 Aldershot 11 11 27
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2 Torquay United 11 16 26
3 Stevenage Borough 11 17 25
4 Cambridge Utd 11 12 25
5 Burton Albion 11 8 22
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6 Salisbury City 11 5 21
7 Crawley Town 11 7 20
8 Exeter City 11 4 18
9 Histon 11 3 17
10 Halifax Town 11 3 16
11 Oxford Utd 11 2 16
12 Kidderminster Harriers 11 1 16
13 Grays Athletic 11 3 15
14 Ebbsfleet Utd 11 -1 15
15 Forest Green Rovers 11 -2 15
16 Rushden & Diamonds 11 0 14
17 Weymouth 11 -3 12
18 Woking 11 -3 11
19 Farsley Celtic 11 -10 11
20 York City 11 -9 8
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21 Altrincham 11 -13 6
22 Stafford Rangers 11 -12 4
23 Droylsden 11 -20 2
24 Northwich Victoria 11 -19 1




MATCH FACT:
* This victory is Aldershot's sixth straight win.

Despite witnessing a sixth successive Blue Square Premier victory as
his side reached the top of the table Shots boss Gary Waddock was far
from happy with the performance as Aldershot defeated Leeds based
Farsley Celtic at the Rec on Saturday afternoon.

Talking to 'The Shots' afterwards, the boss said, "Standing in the
technical area watching what we had to watch I thought that
defensively we were dreadful. We got out of jail in this match. We let
them back into the game when we were in a good position. We are not
happy and that performance was not good enough.

"We will need to improve on that. We played that badly here and got
three points although I am sure it was good viewing for the neutral
fan.

"At 2-0 up just after half time we let them back in and were all over
the place. Farsley should have got something out of the game. We are
not kidding ourselves. I said to the players after the game not to get
carried away because we have won. That performance shows that we are a
long long way away from how we want to be and how we can perform. On
the day we weren't good enough and if we play like that at Cambridge
there will be a different outcome".

A well taken late John Grant strike gave Shots all three points as the
Yorkshire side were allowed back into the match twice and can count
themselves unfortunate not to have been awarded a penalty kick in the
fourth minute of injury time.

Boss Waddock named the same starting line up that played against York
City in midweek but it was the visitors who possessed more purpose in
the early stages of the game.

Indeed goalkeeper Nikki Bull needed to be on his guard on three
minutes when Gavin Grant struck low stretching the home keeper down to
his right to save.

Damien Reeves was put through soon after with a long ball played over
the top. He ran on to the edge of the 18 yard box before he struck
goalbounds and off the legs of keeper Bull.

Former Bradford City striker Grant was allowed space to run through on
goal on 22 minutes and was thwarted by a superbly timed save from Bull
who dived at the striker's feet to gather the ball.

Louie Soares and Scott Davies struck wide from distance but the first
time Aldershot were on target produced a goal.

A deep centre from Anthony Straker was met by Rob Elvins on the edge
of the six yard box and the striker netted his third goal of the
season with a header that seemed to stumble over the line despite the
efforts of Celtic keeper Tom Morgan.

Soares nearly added to the lead just before the break when he received
the ball from Elvins and he cut inside with an 18 yard effort that was
just wide of the far post.

Within two minutes of the restart and boss Waddock's side extended
their lead.

Davies and John Grant worked well through the middle with a neat
interchange. Striker Grant cut inside onto his left foot and from 16
yards drilled the ball home . It was a replica of his goal at Oxford
United a week previously.

With the vast majority of the home support believing that their side
would cruise onto a comfortable victory the game took a staggering
change of direction.

All of a sudden the home defence was exposed and, ceasing the
initiative, Farsley took full advantage.

Gavin Grant was put through inside the penalty box and, composed,
rounded the outcoming Bull before slotting home into an empty net.

Bull was out within a minute of the goal to deny Reeves and the
nervousness of the players was apparent from the Recreation Ground
faithful.

There was not a great surprise when Colin Heath headed home from a
deep centre from the left from Roy Stamer. There only looked to be one
winner from this stage.

Aldershot Town boss Waddock needed to change things about and he
introduced Ricky Newman for captain Rhys Day moving Rob Gier to centre
half and Scott Davies moving to right back.

Ironically it was Newman who settled the nerves again when, from a
clearance on the hour, he steadied himself before volleying sweetly
into the far corner from 25 yards to the delight of the home crowd.

It was the former Brentford and Crystal Palace player's first goal for
Aldershot in his 52nd appearance.

With such an open game there was always going to be the opportunities
for further efforts although it took a penalty from Stephen Downes on
78 minutes to level maters for Celtic. He stepped up to calmly slot
the ball into the far left hand corner to convert the effort after
Grant was knocked to the floor by Davies.

Similar to the earlier pressure from the Yorkshire side they took
advantage of noticeable uncertainty at the back of the Shots defence
and Reeves was again expertly denied by a Bull save with only the
keeper to beat.

Newman was pushed back to the heart of the home defence to attempt to
steady the nervousness.

The deciding goal came with just six minutes to go. Starting down the
left hand side Lewis Chalmers made a key touch into the path of Soares
on the right hand side. He, in turn, fed the advancing Grant who had
crept into the right hand side of the penalty box. A deft touch from
the confident striker saw him able to lift the ball over Morgan and
Shots were in the lead for a third time.

There was still time for Celtic to level matters. Substitute Ashley
Allansan worked well to get to the byeline and he produced an
excellent cross into the bath of the unmarked Amjad Iqbal who
inexplicably blazed wide with the goal widening for him. He
immediately raised his hand to apologise to his colleagues.

In the fourth minute of injury time Reeves was allowed to hurdle three
challenges before Bull somehow managed a one handed save to divert the
ball away from a certain goal. Penalty appeals from the visitors
appeared to have a justification as Reeves managed to keep on his feet
despite appearing to be impeded. It was a case that Celtic boss Lee
Sinnott may have raised with referee Rodeta after the match.

Boss Waddock concluded, "I was not convinced that the penalty that was
given was correct but the one late on looked to be a penalty to me.
These things seem to even themselves out though. We saw the game out.
It is over and done with and we can put it to bed now."

John Grant was awarded the Man of the Match after scoring a brace in
Saturday's 4-3 victory at home to Farsley Celtic by match sponsors
Delta Self Hire Drive

John has now scored nine goals in 10 matches this season.

Farsley Celtic Manager Lee Sinnott gave Centre forward Colin Heath his
first start and also recalled Tom Morgan, James Knowles and Gareth
Grant to the starting line up. Farsley had much of the early play, but
fell behind in the 30th minute when Soares left wing cross was headed
home by Rob Elvins.

Aldershot doubled their advantage in the second minute of the second
half when John Grant hit a left foot shot into the bottom right hand
corner of the net. It was Farsley's Grant, Gareth, who was next to
score after a pass from Chris Billy. Farsley were level in the 55th
minute when a Roy Stamer cross was headed home by Colin Heath. Scores
were only level for 5 minutes before Newman vollyed the home side back
into the lead. Farsley fought back again, when Downes scored from the
spot following a foul on Gareth Grant. Aldershot won the game when
John Grant scored his second goal of the day firing home from 18 yards
to send his team top of the league.