Source: FOOTYMAD
Almondsbury Town 0 Aldershot Town 6
Aldershot Town got their pre-season off to a winning start at Oaklands Park on Tuesday evening with a confident display against their Southern League Division 1 South & West opposition. Kevin Dillon saw his two sides - one in each half - get off to a winning start to their pre-season campaign and, although Almondsbury certainly began the match as the brighter of the two sides, it was Dillon's men who controlled the match for the most part. Seven trialists were named in Dillon's ranks: experienced former Reading midfielder Glenn Little, highly rated Durham City midfielder Andy Stephenson, Southampton centre-half Jack Saville, former Aberdeen midfielder Sammy Stewart, ex-Bristol City winger Scott Murray, former Everton youth product Kevin McLeod and 'the other' Aaron Brown formally of Bristol City - all of whom will have impressed the watching management team during their forty-five minute spells. With just four-minutes on the clock, the impressive Ross Stern sent a thunderous ball across the face of the Shots goal which unfortunately for him, saw none of his team mates pushing forwards and the ball ended up nipping through the Shots penalty area and across the face of goal, before going out for a goal kick. From there on in however, it was the visitors who took the upper hand and with Glenn Little and Luke Guttridge in domineering form in the centre of the park, The Shots began to set up stall in their hosts half of the pitch. Some precise passing and lively one-touch football saw Danny Hylton coming close three times in quick succession, but the opening goal honours fell to the equally impressive Reece Connolly who stabbed the ball home from close range with just eighteen-minutes on the clock. Soon after, the youngster was denied a certain second in similar circumstances when his effort smacked the base of the upright and Ben Herd saw his follow-up cleared by the Almonds defence. It wasn't all one-way traffic however. On forty-one minutes, Marvin Brown had a the Shots goal in sight from twenty-yards out and after delivering a near perfect shot which looked as if it would creep under the bar, it took an energetic flying save from Jamie Young to prevent the ball from hitting the back of the Aldershot net as he palmed the ball out to safety to preserve the Shots lead going in to the break. The second half got underway with great gusto and following some comical Almondsbury defending, Aaron Brown was able to turn on the edge of the penalty area and fire in a low effort to grab the Shots second and after Kevin McLeod fired over after some neat Aldershot passing, on fifty-three minutes, Marvin Morgan perfected one of his trademark runs having picked up a Jack Randall through-ball, beat two defenders and steered the ball into the back of the net for number three. Stern then calved a couple of chances down at the opposite end in quick succession, both of which were carbon copies of his earlier effort, but on both occasions he found himself denied from releasing the ball first by Anthony Straker and then by Aaron Brown. Jack Randall was brought down by an innocuous challenge in the middle of the park on seventy-three minutes which resulted in some lengthy treatment before being carried off with an ankle injury. Kevin McLeod stepped over the ball to place it slow-motion style, into the back of the net, for number four prompting supporters to say: "Look's like Kevin has found Andy Sandell's replacement!" With seventy-nine minutes gone, Marvin Morgan forced his way through to the right hand side of the Almonds penalty area and after being crowded out by several defenders, lay the ball back to Ben Harding who struck a sweet effort into the back of the net from the edge of the penalty area. On eighty-one minutes, Kevin McLeod linked well with Marvin Morgan who again forced his way past three Almonds defender before calmly slotting the ball into the net from a difficult angle. On eighty-eight minutes, Almondsbury had the chance to pull one back after Jordan Clement raced out and felled Aaron Blackmore, who was bearing down on his goal, however justice perhaps wasn't served when Clement made a fantastic low save from the resulting spot kick. On ninety-minutes Anthony Straker thought he had made the score-sheet, however after a terrific through-ball, is effort was judged to be off-side from two yards out. Almonds squad:: Stuart Jones, Stuart Nelson, Clayton Fortune, Marcus Mapstone, Lee Jefferies, Todd Winter, Ross Stearn, Nick Dunn, Marvin Brown, Mike Whittington, David Anyinsah, Jason Wood, Matt Beadle, Dean Griffiths, Aaron Blakemore, Carl Lakey, Sam Andrews, Lee Matthews, Mark McKeiver, Tom Daly, Steve Mason and Sahr Kabba. Shots first half: Jamie Young, Ben Herd, Jamie Vincent, Sam Stewart, Darren Jones, Jack Saville, Reece Connolly, Luke Guttridge, Damian Spencer, Glenn Little and Danny Hylton. Shots second half: Jordan Clement, Scott Murray, Emmanuel Panther, Anthony Charles, Anthony Straker, Andy Stephenson, Ben Harding, Kevin McLeod, Jack Randall, Aaron Brown and Marvin Morgan. Attendance: 115
