rjdgull
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Post by rjdgull on Apr 25, 2021 7:20:54 GMT
Whenever we play Aldershot I always think back to our rivalry of the 2007/08 season and while we are once again top of the National League and pushing for promotion. Aldershot are your typical mid-table side having won 14 games but loss 15. Technically they are in with a shout of the play offs but 5 points behind Notts County, Chesterfield and Eastleigh, all just outside the top 7 suggests this is a bridge too far!
Aldershot’s recent result are not too impressive, a 2-0 win against a Wealdstone side on Saturday that have been conceding a bucket load of goals and before that could only manage a 1-1 draw with King’s Lynn and a 3-1 away loss to an improving Barnet. Harry Panayiotou is their in-form player scoring 3 goals in their last four games.
This is a must win game for us if we are to maintain our position at the top and pull away using our game in hand against an in form Hartlepool. The players worked very hard on Saturday and once again we will be looking at the team selection to see if any are back to provide both the quality and freshness. Noises from the club and reports suggest Little, Kimpioka and Whitfield are very close with Wright and Cameron not far behind. What a difference it would make to the team to have them all available.
Umerah is suspended for this game and others out are Nelson (suppose to be getting close) Davis (career ending injury?) Nemane (had a setback) but to get back to the top of the league with all these out is nothing less than a phenomenal effort. Up the gulls. 😀
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Post by stefano on Apr 25, 2021 7:35:40 GMT
FORECAST: Torquay United 0 Aldershot 6
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Post by plainmoorpete on Apr 25, 2021 11:14:33 GMT
FORECAST: Torquay United 0 Aldershot 6 That's a bit better Stefano. I thought you were being a tad optimistic thinking we would only lose 0-4 against Notts and it nearly cost us. |
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Post by stefano on Apr 25, 2021 11:23:47 GMT
FORECAST: Torquay United 0 Aldershot 6 That's a bit better Stefano. I thought you were being a tad optimistic thinking we would only lose 0-4 against Notts and it nearly cost us. 🤣 Yes you have to be very careful with this voodoo stuff and you learn as you go along. It always needs to be nil for us. I put a 6-0 loss against Dagenham but rjd persuaded me we were worth a goal or two so I amended it to an 8-2 loss. We lost! You really can't be too careful! 😉⚽️ |
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rjdgull
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Post by rjdgull on Apr 25, 2021 11:29:32 GMT
That's a bit better Stefano. I thought you were being a tad optimistic thinking we would only lose 0-4 against Notts and it nearly cost us. 🤣 Yes you have to be very careful with this voodoo stuff and you learn as you go along. It always needs to be nil for us. I put a 6-0 loss against Dagenham but rjd persuaded me we were worth a goal or two so I amended it to an 8-2 loss. We lost! You really can't be too careful! 😉⚽️ Guilty as charged! |
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petef
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Post by petef on Apr 25, 2021 15:10:11 GMT
Whenever we play Aldershot I always think back to our rivalry of the 2007/08 season and while we are once again top of the National League and pushing for promotion. Aldershot are your typical mid-table side having won 14 games but loss 15. Technically they are in with a shout of the play offs but 5 points behind Notts County, Chesterfield and Eastleigh, all just outside the top 7 suggests this is a bridge too far! Aldershot’s recent result are not too impressive, a 2-0 win against a Wealdstone side on Saturday that have been conceding a bucket load of goals and before that could only manage a 1-1 draw with King’s Lynn and a 3-1 away loss to an improving Barnet. Harry Panayiotou is their in-form player scoring 3 goals in their last four games. This is a must win game for us if we are to maintain our position at the top and pull away using our game in hand against an in form Hartlepool. The players worked very hard on Saturday and once again we will be looking at the team selection to see if any are back to provide both the quality and freshness. Noises from the club and reports suggest Little, Kimpioka and Whitfield are very close with Wright and Cameron not far behind. What a difference it would make to the team to have them all available. Umerah is suspended for this game and others out are Nelson (suppose to be getting close) Davis (career ending injury?) Nemane (had a setback) but to get back to the top of the league with all these out is nothing less than a phenomenal effort. Up the gulls. 😀 I completely agree Rob - It's been a phenomenal effort considering our non stop injury setbacks. The question is though, can we keep it going and get results through sheer effort and blood and guts performances? If we're truly honest, and I'm pretty certain many would agree, we have ridden our luck in many games and character and determination has brought us results in quite a number fixtures when in truth we haven't really performed as we did in the first third of the season. Notts County I thought highlighted many of our current shortcomings. Gary J sees what we all see, he knows it for sure but has done an incredible job to get us where we are with the patchwork of a squad he's had to work with. His motivational skills are second to none in football management at any level and his ability to find answers is quite astounding. If we can combine that character and fight along with a few of our best players coming back while rediscovering some of our early season threat and devastating attack play - seems a distant memory now - then we have an excellent chance of finishing as Champions though every time I look at our remaining fixtures it makes me cringe they all look difficult to me! Think back to the Crawley cup match, Yeovil in the league. We were superb offensively and as good going forward and creating chances as I can ever remember. Aldershot will see this fixture as a "nothing to lose everything to gain" contest and that could spell dangerous for us. I dont see Nelson featuring to be fair unless hes had some game time somewhere hell be extremely rusty as will one or two other "IF" they make it back. The top of the table has suddenly evened itself out and a truer picture of who is going to win the thing. Seven cup finals - It will boil down to who can stay injury free in a very busy final schedule, who has the stamina and who wants it most? Tense times - shut your eyes and enjoy the ride.  |
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jerry
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Post by jerry on Apr 26, 2021 10:28:04 GMT
As a striker I don't think the need for Nelson to have played much football is so great. He's not going to be starting games but could maybe feature as an impact sub for the last 15 minutes if we're chasing a game.
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rjdgull
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Post by rjdgull on Apr 26, 2021 16:53:16 GMT
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rjdgull
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Post by rjdgull on Apr 27, 2021 7:11:30 GMT
link - Dave Thomas talks about Kimpioka and Little hopefully being back for Saturday which may see us start the same again for tonight’s game with no Umerah on the bench. Johnson wanted the April manager of the month award to get back into the title race and a win tonight would probably get it.
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Post by stig123 on Apr 27, 2021 7:42:59 GMT
rjdgull...your memories of 2007/8 Aldershot encounters remind me of earlier ( late 1960s?) memories of Aldershot kicking us off the park at Plainmoor. They had a ginger haired midfielder who kicked anything in a yellow shirt that moved.Never been a fan of Aldershot ever since. Ditto Notts County.
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Post by stefano on Apr 27, 2021 9:01:17 GMT
I see former Gull Josh Rees is top scorer for Aldershot with 12 goals. Hopefully Shots will be penned in their own half throughout so we will not hear from him! 😉⚽️
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Post by stefano on Apr 27, 2021 15:04:37 GMT
Getting excited now as we edge closer to the first of the big seven. Hold our nerve and we are back in the Football League.
I always associate Aldershot with lots of goals which I am sure comes from my early memories. Back in the 60's we played them at Plainmoor two seasons in a row as part of the Christmas schedule, winning 5-1 and 5-2. In one of those seasons we also won 5-2 at the Rec. Our first ever away game in the Vauxhall Conference saw us on fire and a 3-0 win at the Rec although Aldershot went on to have an excellent season and were promoted as champions. Not so many years ago in the Football League we were 3-0 down at Plainmoor but came back to win 4-3, and of course only this season we saw them off 4-1 at the Rec.
I can see a tight game again this evening, but if the lads get in to gear it would be a boost to notch a few as goal difference is looking to be very likely to come into the equation when all games have been completed. ⚽️
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petef
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Post by petef on Apr 27, 2021 15:25:18 GMT
Another potential banana skin. Its often the games like these your expected to win that trip you up with another former Gull to face with a dozen goals to his name. I'm more of a realist these days and feel our injury situation is still having an effect on our performances so not overly confident particularly after such a draining contest at the weekend. Hints of squad rotation but who will replace who? Love to see one or two back in contention though once again we will likely have to rely on Stefano's Vodoo spells for a result.  |
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Apr 27, 2021 17:10:09 GMT
Could do with a few of the injured back.
Didn’t think what we had left would be enough to match Notts County. It sort of wasn’t but we nicked a point anyway.
Could the same 16 less Umerah plus Koszela see off Aldershot? Maybe, maybe not.
Suspect a few of those 16 will be struggling to get through another ninety minutes so could be a case of finding 8 who are good for 90 minutes, 3 good for 60, 3 good for 30 and fit the jigsaw together.
Possible start for Tomlinson’s fresh legs? Would expect us to want to be in a position to part-rest Moxey, Hall, Andrews and Boden. Andrews on the bench ready to replace Hall with Tomlinson starting wide left?
Two or three returners would make nonsense of all the above and give us real room to manoeuvre. Fingers crossed. If we can scrape through tonight without the cavalry we sure as hell will need them for the run of games starting Saturday.
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rjdgull
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Post by rjdgull on Apr 27, 2021 17:17:07 GMT
link - Waters in for Buse - 4-4-2?
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