Aldershot 2 Exeter City 1.

Saturday 28 February 2004.

Flag Denies Grecians a Replay 

Exeter City had their FA Trophy dreams taken away at Aldershot's chilly Recreation Ground.

Saturday's was a nice short trip for me, from a sunny but freezing Kent.

There had been a few flakes of snow earlier in the morning. I decided to catch the 11:47 train, but I got a real sinking feeling when I got to the station and saw a dreaded "Engineering Works" notice.

Luckily this time it was not too drastic and meant a slight alteration in London, catching the tube at London Bridge to get to Waterloo rather than going straight there. The tube was crammed and seemed mostly full of Arsenal and West Ham United supporters. My Exeter City shirt got plenty of admiring glances! At Waterloo I met up with quite a few other London based Grecians and we headed for Aldershot on the 13:18 train.

Aldershot station is only a 5 minute walk from the ground, indeed the ground is right by the tracks. There was a heavy Police presence and the ground was segregated by fences, stewards and yet more police. It was 10 quid to enter the 'Rec, the name of Aldershot's ground.

The Exeter supporters congregated at one end were we had been allocated half of a covered terrace. Our corner allegedly held 2,000, but I'm not so sure. The roof was a corrugated iron rounded structure much like a barn, however it did mean the acoustics were pretty good.

To our left was a smallish piece of open terrace then a small seated stand followed by another small open terrace. To our right was a small to medium all seated stand with an interesting red/grey striped roof. At the far end was, well, nothing. Apparently there is a covenant preventing them from doing anything with this end. The pitch was sandy. Very sandy. Before the game I bought a burger and a bovril. 3 quid for the burger, and it wasn't even that good

The game kicked off with City playing towards the away/home fans. The atmosphere was excellent, the best I've seen since getting relegated. Aldershot got to grips with the game first and City's defence were the busiest to begin with. City almost broke the deadlock but a Kwame Ampadu shot was saved. It did not take long for Aldershot's dominance to yield a dividend though, and on 17 minutes they were awarded a free kick by the left wing. The cross came in and their number 9 got a touch on it to edge it inside James Bittner's near post. City stepped up a gear after this and took the game to the home side.

City duly reaped their reward after half an hour when the lively Les Afful was brought down on the corner of the box. Sean Devine took the free- kick and bent it round the wall and keeper into the top right corner, 1-1. The 800 900 City fans went wild and the players were pretty excited too. Just before half time Steve Flack was carried off injured. Aldershot didn't have a stretcher though, so other players had to carry him off.

At half time I had a look at the programme. It was priced at the fairly standard 2 pounds, and was OK. Mostly adverts and not very much to read, some good pictures though.

And so no to the second half. Sadly City lacked bite for the opening spell, the midfield especially. The defence seemed pretty tight though apart from Aldershot's second goal. A deepish cross from the far side found their substitute striker, unfortunately Alex Jeannin was the wrong side of him and his header looped over Bittner and in. City laid siege to Aldershot's goal for most of the rest of the game. Scott Hiley made a clearance on the line from a corner and Ampadu made an awesome tackle after the Shots broke away following a City corner. It was the sort of tackle that had it not been 100% accurate then a red card would have been shown for a professional foul. City then went to 5-3-2 (more like 3-5-2) with young Dean Moxey replacing Hiley and swapping to left wing back. During the finale City hit the post and then right at the death City got a corner. Following a scramble Devine touched the ball home, cruelly our joy was short lived, the assistant referee had ruled offside. Not sure how she saw it in the melee and the photo of Devine scoring shows opposition players behind him. There was still time for Moxey to hit the side netting, but it was not to be City's day. No semi final place after bowing out 2-1. Maybe a draw would have been a fairer reflection but these things happen. We decided to get out of Aldershot pretty sharpish, and as we headed back to the station we passed a load of burberry and stone island clad people heading towards the ground. They were all in their thirties and had the aspect of people looking for a scrap. Whilst waiting at the station we heard plenty of sirens and apparently there were a few scuffles near the ground. Thankfully we saw none of this and amazingly I was back at home by 19:30.

All in all quite a good day out, obviously the result was upsetting but it's always nice to meet your mates and have a laugh. Time to dig out the old cliché about concentrating on the league.

Aldershot 2-1 Exeter
Sills 13 Devine 31 Charles 56

Aldershot: Barnard, Hooper, Nutter, Warburton, Hooper, Antwi, Shields, Miller, Challinor, Sills, McLean.
Subs: Lauder-Dyke, Smith, Chewins, Harper, Charles.

Exeter: Bittner, Hiley, Gaia, Todd, Jeannin, Afful, Sheldon, Cronin, Ampadu, Flack and Devine.
Subs: Moxey, Taylor, Lee, Coppinger, Rice.

Referee: Andy Woolmer

Attendance  3800

Aldershot and Canvey Island sealed their places in the FA Trophy semi-finals.

The Shots edged out fellow Conference promotion hopefuls Exeter at the Recreation Ground. Runaway Ryman Premier League leaders Canvey Island hammered Maidenhead 4-0 to reach the last four in style. Shropshire rivals Shrewsbury and Telford must face each other in a replay, while Hednesford and Hornchurch were frozen off.