Aldershot Town 2-2 Braintree Town - Tuesday 14th January 2025 (Match Day Thread)

[brian bloomfield]

We had better midfielders in 1992 than widdrington, rose coloured glasses
to the extreme.

May, Calvert and Osgood, certainly had more grit in their play.

[Northcampshot]

Whilst it is good to know TW has made a recovery, the time has come for him to go, the club needs to take the hit financially and make a change. The current situation can't go on, the team managment decisions that this lot are making are laughable.

How can he send Byrd out on loan and stick with Maghoma
Why doesn't Stuttle get a game
How does Theo get in the starting 11 and Frost is on the bench
Why do we set up exactly the same for every game
The shambles over the keper choices at times due to some stupid agreement made at the start of the season
The inablity to pick our strongest team due to constant shuffling about

I hope I'm wrong of course but if we carry on like we are we will go down, we can't say we are better than the teams around us the table doesn't lie. One win in twelve is pathetic. Three of the last 4 years have been relegation dogfights and we have a worse team this year than we had in any our previous battles, if we go down we won't be back up anytime soon. Glad I didn't go tonight, from what other posters are saying it sounded dreadful.

[SteveyAsp]

I would love for there to be a fans forum so I could ask what qualities they see in Theo to justify paying a fee + a 2 year deal AND selecting him every week.

He sets the tone for everything that is wrong with our teams performance.

First half he played a ball across the edge of his own penalty area which was cut out by an oncoming Braintree player.

At the start of the second half he totally mistimed his jump for a header and completely missed the ball!

He actually did it twice in quick succession

[Fuggletim]

2 x Teams who cancelled themselves out in total mediocrity and will continue to find themselves in relegation danger.

[chimpster99]

I would love for there to be a fans forum so I could ask what qualities they see in Theo to justify paying a fee + a 2 year deal AND selecting him every week.

He sets the tone for everything that is wrong with our teams performance.

First half he played a ball across the edge of his own penalty area which was cut out by an oncoming Braintree player.

At the start of the second half he totally mistimed his jump for a header and completely missed the ball!

And in injury time he landed an elbow in a Braintree player's face off the ball, just as he's done in the past. A clear red card not seen by the officials.

His continued selection is completely indefensible.

[AFC197273]

This is unraveling very quickly, that performance was awful and totally self inflicted by the management team. They haven’t been true to themselves which is unacceptable . It’s very unfair to so many loyal Shots fans who have backed this club through some very tough times over the years but,never in those tough times has it been due to a management team picking players because of who they are (or some dodgy pre arranged agreement as perJVS ) rather than their football ability. I’m tired of it,really tired. Last year we gave ourselves a chance to turn this clubs fortunes round but the board and management team have blown it. Our survival is hanging by a thread and they seem oblivious.

[Alex]

Whatever happens at Oldham (expecting a heavy revenge defeat) Tamworth at home might be my last game this season, which I’ll feel awful and sad about.

However, we just aren’t exciting to watch at the moment!

I’ll repeat a question I asked a few weeks ago… What has happened to the entertaining free-flowing football we played at home against FGR, Oldham and Maidenhead?

[MidlandsShot]

Tonight was a huge disappointment. Do the club realise we're in a relegation battle?

Selection was all wrong. I know they both scored but tonight was another example of why Barrett and Henry should not play in the same XI. Far too slow and we lacked any ability to hold the ball up. To be fair at least Josh runs about and gets involved with play and creating chances, but Henry probably watched more of the game than most of the supporters. I know he took his goal well but Henry was a passenger for nearly all the game.

The back three was puzzling. Maghoma's strength has been dealing with big experienced strikers, and he has little ability on the ball, so is much better suited in the middle of the back three than on the right. Conversely Armitage was playing his first game for us, so let's give him John Akinde to deal with rather than on the right which was a better match-up for him.

I didn't think Theo was as bad as is made out, but with both Henry and Barrett on the pitch we needed more mobility. I thought Jones and Akpan worked very hard and put serious shifts in. Dewhurst was a little disappointing for me, particularly his kicking.

Next game has to see Stuttle start alongside Barham. We've been crying out for a striker to hold the ball up for a while now, yet now we have one we refuse to play him? Absolutely madness. I'd play him alongside Barham with Barrett in behind.

Credit to Braintree, I thought they had their moments with some nice moves, and they made us work hard for our point.

[redblueuptoyou]

Whatever happens at Oldham (expecting a heavy revenge defeat) Tamworth at home might be my last game this season, which I’ll feel awful and sad about.

However, we just aren’t exciting to watch at the moment!

I’ll repeat a question I asked a few weeks ago… What has happened to the entertaining free-flowing football we played at home against FGR, Oldham and Maidenhead?

We saw some of that in the second half v Woking. We had probably our strongest and most cohesive team out then with players in their correct positions.

[chimpster99]

Whatever happens at Oldham (expecting a heavy revenge defeat) Tamworth at home might be my last game this season, which I’ll feel awful and sad about.

However, we just aren’t exciting to watch at the moment!

I’ll repeat a question I asked a few weeks ago… What has happened to the entertaining free-flowing football we played at home against FGR, Oldham and Maidenhead?

Those games came before many of the squad realised that our coaching team are a bunch of spoofers and that many of this summer's signings were duff. And I imagine the nepotism and favouritism starts to grate after a while. At full time most of the players looked like they were wondering how the hell they ended up at such a dysfunctional club.

[Aldershot_Rob]

I would love for there to be a fans forum so I could ask what qualities they see in Theo to justify paying a fee + a 2 year deal AND selecting him every week.

He sets the tone for everything that is wrong with our teams performance.

First half he played a ball across the edge of his own penalty area which was cut out by an oncoming Braintree player.

At the start of the second half he totally mistimed his jump for a header and completely missed the ball!

Spot on. I feel we'd be better off playing with 10, men. Which is ironic as that is probably the only thing he's capable of offering.

[CH]

Tonight was a huge disappointment. Do the club realise we're in a relegation battle?

Selection was all wrong. I know they both scored but tonight was another example of why Barrett and Henry should not play in the same XI. Far too slow and we lacked any ability to hold the ball up. To be fair at least Josh runs about and gets involved with play and creating chances, but Henry probably watched more of the game than most of the supporters. I know he took his goal well but Henry was a passenger for nearly all the game.

The back three was puzzling. Maghoma's strength has been dealing with big experienced strikers, and he has little ability on the ball, so is much better suited in the middle of the back three than on the right. Conversely Armitage was playing his first game for us, so let's give him John Akinde to deal with rather than on the right which was a better match-up for him.

I didn't think Theo was as bad as is made out, but with both Henry and Barrett on the pitch we needed more mobility. I thought Jones and Akpan worked very hard and put serious shifts in. Dewhurst was a little disappointing for me, particularly his kicking.

Next game has to see Stuttle start alongside Barham. We've been crying out for a striker to hold the ball up for a while now, yet now we have one we refuse to play him? Absolutely madness. I'd play him alongside Barham with Barrett in behind.

Credit to Braintree, I thought they had their moments with some nice moves, and they made us work hard for our point.

Polite question, having watched him as closely as possible this evening.

What am I missing?

[Northcampshot]

Whatever happens at Oldham (expecting a heavy revenge defeat) Tamworth at home might be my last game this season, which I’ll feel awful and sad about.

However, we just aren’t exciting to watch at the moment!

I’ll repeat a question I asked a few weeks ago… What has happened to the entertaining free-flowing football we played at home against FGR, Oldham and Maidenhead?

Those games came before many of the squad realised that our coaching team are a bunch of spoofers and that many of this summer's signings were duff. And I imagine the nepotism and favouritism starts to grate after a while. At full time most of the players looked like they were wondering how the hell they ended up at such a dysfunctional club.

Spot on Chimpster and what a good way to sum up our managment team, but surely even Azeem can see that now. I'm with you too Alex with the current setup I don't think i'll be making the trip many more times this season. The managment team are bleeding the life out of the club.

[Alex]

Unbelievable! Or not

The Herald newspaper has fallen for the ATFC management teams trap and are reporting “Aldershot Town extend unbeaten run with National League draw against Braintree Town at the EBB Stadium”

[Sean Chambers]

Looks like the attendances are going to start dropping then if people are thinking about not coming anymore this season.
I know people have choices,but throwing the towel in now seems a wee bit odd to me but each to their own I guess.