Aldershot Town 2-0 AFC Fylde - Tuesday 1st April 2025 (Match Night Thread)

[Josh]

Dreadful team selection. We deserve to get beaten. Utterly brainless.

That travelled well OB

There is no hiding the fact that we got away with one there. The team selection was completely off the wall, verging on disrespectful to Fylde and the paying punters. I made it that Fylde had 7 good goal chances before we had one ... and scored via a deflection.
Easy to be wise after the event, but that was a game where we needed to win and should not have been gambling with bizarre team selection.
Note that Dewhurst was rightly chosen as man of the match. That's because we gifted Fylde multiple chances to test him.

On chances created, Fylde should have won. Fortunately we took 2 of our chances and think we had only one other shot on goal which was Corbett's late on. Dewhurst was outstanding.

We played a stronger side at Bashley.

However, I'm in the minority and want us to get to Wembley so hopefully it will work out.

[Old Bob]

That travelled well OB

There is no hiding the fact that we got away with one there. The team selection was completely off the wall, verging on disrespectful to Fylde and the paying punters. I made it that Fylde had 7 good goal chances before we had one ... and scored via a deflection.
Easy to be wise after the event, but that was a game where we needed to win and should not have been gambling with bizarre team selection.
Note that Dewhurst was rightly chosen as man of the match. That's because we gifted Fylde multiple chances to test him.

As in golf the score card does not paint a picture, it just shows the result - we got the ball in the net twice, Fylde never managed it. Hence the history books will show just a 2-0 victory.

So what do you think was TW's game plan? Do you think he figured: I know, let’s make a shed load of changes and rely on getting lucky? OK, it worked but it was reckless and it was more likely to misfire than anything.
Did you see his match preview? We're not thinking about Saturday, he said. We're fully focused on Fylde he said. That was crap, wasn't it?

[Old Bob]

I think you have a valid reason but a lot of others haven’t

It's only a game of football. We don't need to give anyone a "reason" for not attending, thanks.

Correct.

With regards to the game, a great win and justification for the team selection which admittedly made me nervous when I first saw it. Well done Tommy and team.

I may be out of line with other's' opinion, but I don't think the win justified the awful team selection. In my view, winning the lottery does not justify buying a ticket, it just means you got hugely lucky. This is why I have never bought a lottery ticket in my life.

[Cph.shots]

It's only a game of football. We don't need to give anyone a "reason" for not attending, thanks.

Correct.

With regards to the game, a great win and justification for the team selection which admittedly made me nervous when I first saw it. Well done Tommy and team.

I may be out of line with other's' opinion, but I don't think the win justified the awful team selection. In my view, winning the lottery does not justify buying a ticket, it just means you got hugely lucky. This is why I have never bought a lottery ticket in my life.

IMO, I think it means that Tommy took a calculated risk, put out a team that he thought was capable of doing the job. Most of the changes were in the front so maybe the idea was not to concede and maybe get something on the break. Both our top scorers were used...and scored, other fringe players got good minutes so i think the plan worked ok.

[Shots Fired]

It's only a game of football. We don't need to give anyone a "reason" for not attending, thanks.

Correct.

With regards to the game, a great win and justification for the team selection which admittedly made me nervous when I first saw it. Well done Tommy and team.

I may be out of line with other's' opinion, but I don't think the win justified the awful team selection. In my view, winning the lottery does not justify buying a ticket, it just means you got hugely lucky. This is why I have never bought a lottery ticket in my life.

Haha winning the lottery absolutely does justify buying a ticket but to the point at hand, you refer to the “awful team selection” well it was a team selection that ultimately won us the game. You or I may have (and we’ve both admitted we did) disagreed with the selection but we were wrong. Tommy picked a team he thought could win the game and he was right. By definition the win justified the selection and Tommy and the team should be congratulated for a job well done.

[Alan B]

You are entitled to your view Bob but for me it was the right decision to make 5 changes. All of the players who started last night that didn't start at Rochdale - Ellison, Widdrington, Mullins, Corbett and Thomas - had good games and fully justified their inclusion. Football is a squad game these days and the fringe players need to be given opportunities to stake their claims.

Tommy may not have said it publicly but it was obvious that his priority is the FA Trophy with the glory and financial benefits that go with it. Aldershot are probably (and were before last night) safe from relegation, so it was important to rotate the squad. Yes, we could have lost and it took a while to get to grips with Fylde's attacking formation but the team weathered the early storm and got the goals to win the game. Marcus Dewhurst made a couple of good saves, as he has been doing all season, but that's why he is our keeper. Last night enhanced the claims of a few players too.

Why not enjoy the win and look forward to next Saturday instead of criticising the manager for something that didn't happen?

[Silasgoldeen]

You are entitled to your view Bob but for me it was the right decision to make 5 changes. All of the players who started last night that didn't start at Rochdale - Ellison, Widdrington, Mullins, Corbett and Thomas - had good games and fully justified their inclusion. Football is a squad game these days and the fringe players need to be given opportunities to stake their claims.

Tommy may not have said it publicly but it was obvious that his priority is the FA Trophy with the glory and financial benefits that go with it. Aldershot are probably (and were before last night) safe from relegation, so it was important to rotate the squad. Yes, we could have lost and it took a while to get to grips with Fylde's attacking formation but the team weathered the early storm and got the goals to win the game. Marcus Dewhurst made a couple of good saves, as he has been doing all season, but that's why he is our keeper. Last night enhanced the claims of a few players too.

Why not enjoy the win and look forward to next Saturday instead of criticising the manager for something that didn't happen?

Bookies odds suggested an implied probability of about 55%-60% home win last night, with the remainder divided between a draw and a defeat.
For Woking the home win is about 44%, which is still the most likely outcome out of win/draw/lose, but lower than the expected chances of beating Fylde.

We can never know (although bookies will), but in Tommy's mind he will have slightly worsened the chances of beating Fylde, maybe even as far as 50%, but increased the odds v Woking, maybe up to 50%. Maybe it's more. Bob, you'd say it's less because you don't believe in this. But the fact is, some of our key players are now rested and not injured. Had they played last night they'd have been less rested and might have been injured. This matters to Tommy.

Who knows if the above is correct, but again, it's surely a reasonable decision to make. If it gives us a 5% better chance of beating Woking - a game that could be decided on the finest of margins - then why not try?

[Alex]

People, we won, enjoy!!

[karlready]

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. A “first” team selected last night may , or may not, have achieved a similar result. Then if players appeared “leggy” against Woking, the manager would have been castigated. Anyway, what’s the point of a squad if you don’t use it.

[Charles Dickens]

Alls well that ends well!

I was a bit sceptical about not putting out our best team, but Tommy got it right which is his managing skills and I got it wrong.

All the "reserves" did well and deserve a pat on the back, as did the rest of the regulars. That was a great goaline clearance.

TW now knows that we are ready for Woking.

Fylde were unlucky, ask Dewhurst, but I am not complaining.Fylde don`t look like a relegation side at all.

COYS

[Alex]

Alls well that ends well!

I was a bit sceptical about not putting out our best team, but Tommy got it right which is his managing skills and I got it wrong.

All the "reserves" did well and deserve a pat on the back, as did the rest of the regulars. That was a great goaline clearance.

TW now knows that we are ready for Woking.

Fylde were unlucky, ask Dewhurst, but I am not complaining.Fylde don`t look like a relegation side at all.

COYS

Agree

They were better than some on here have suggested

[margateshot]

I thought Tommy got it right not just with team selection but also driving a resolute performance from the whole team with 2 great bits of quality for the goals.Levi, Corbett, Ellison and Dewhurst were I thought outstanding but also thought Kwame ,Theo and Keane were good too. There’s little to choose in quality between teams in this league except consistency.Fylde played well, particularly first half but I thought we controlled things second half and had some decent chances

I agree Alf. Some talk about being not being respectful to Fylde and we got away with it. However we had enough good players on the bench to turn the match around if we were behind. It is a massive match on Saturday, and we were virtually safe before last night. There has been a gruelling schedule over the last 6 weeks and players are tired. We got a win, a clean sheet and virtual safety last night you can't ask for more than that.

[Alex]

‘players are tired’

[margateshot]

Let's face it, we have played our best players before against teams like Fylde and our record against bottom teams is dire, so some arguments on here are just not justified. If our record against them was 50% better we would be in the play offs.

[Silasgoldeen]

‘players are tired’

oh don't start. Players wear down over the course of a season, and having Saturday/Tuesday ad nauseum to end the season is a recipe for sub-standard performances. This isn't 1977 when Liverpool used 12 players all season, although I suspect some people have this stuck in their head as some kind of spurious benchmark of what a man can do if only he wants it enough.

I mentioned a study the other day about the 2002 world cup where people who'd played more games in the run up were more likely to underperform and more likely to get injured. There's more. e.g.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20400751/

Results: Physical performance, as characterized by total distance covered, high-intensity distance, sprint distance, and number of sprints, was not significantly affected by the number of matches per week (1 versus 2), whereas the injury rate was significantly higher when players played 2 matches per week versus 1 match per week (25.6 versus 4.1 injuries per 1000 hours of exposure; P < .001).

They have a qualified sports scientist whose job it is to monitor all this. He knows more than we do.