October 28: Aldershot Town 1, Port Vale 0

October 28, 2008

League Two

Aldershot Town 1 (Soares 13)

Port Vale 0

VALE’S recent impressive away form was gunned down by the Shots as Louie Soares rifled home a 13th-minute winner on a bitterly cold night in Hampshire.

However, the loyal travelling souls who made the arduous journey from Burslem to Aldershot will at least be able to wear this ticket stub as a badge of honour.

‘Remember Aldershot on a Tuesday night?’ they’ll defiantly proclaim with a grimace.

The trip south proved to be a treacherous one for many with wind, rain, sleet and snow lashing down ... and it was the Valiants feeling under the weather at the final whistle.

While Dean Glover’s young men tried their hardest in the wintry conditions, they failed to cope with Aldershot’s high-velocity approach for much of the encounter.

Soares, brother of Stoke City midfielder Tom, was excellent down the right flank. He linked up well with full-back Junior Osborne, particularly during the first period.

Meanwhile, bustling strikers Danny Hylton and John Grant proved to be real pests.

Young central midfielders Simon Richman, substituted after the hour mark, and Dave Howland struggled to assert any authority against the physically strong Ben Harding and Scott Davies.

Richman and Howland are two of many talented young individuals at Vale who, as Glover pointed out after the match, can be the foundation of any future success.

As Glover also repeated, though, his starlets will benefit greatly once that vital injection of experience, possibly including a large dose of loan target Dave Brammer, is administered into his ranks.

Having said all that, and despite their up-close approach, the hosts did not possess the wherewithal to carve Vale open at will.

And had the Valiants taken one of their few decent chances, and capitalised on their dominance in the final 10 minutes, they may well have earned an honourable discharge from the Army town by escaping with a valuable point.

A pivotal moment arrived near half-time when Rodgers almost mustered an equaliser.

Centre-half Luke Prosser won possession for Vale deep in Aldershot’s half and, after more good play from striker Marc Richards and a clever flick from Howland, Rodgers eventually received the ball in space in the left channel.

He struck his low drive well enough, by-passing Shots keeper Nikki Bull, but Davies came from nowhere to hook the ball away from his own goal-line.

Another positive was the performance of Anthony Griffith at right-back, who again justified Glover’s judgement in selecting him ahead of former team skipper Sam Stockley, who was left out of his squad of 16.

The Vale boss named an unchanged side from the mid-week victory against Morecambe, although he did advance loanee Damien McCrory up into left midfield, switching places with Paul Edwards, who in turn back-pedalled to left-back.

Meanwhile, Rodgers was making his 50th start for the club.

The Shots sparked the game into life, on a soaking wet surface, after five minutes. Davies collected the ball 25 yards out and rattled the bar with a wicked effort that swirled up and beyond a helpless Joe Anyon in Vale’s goal.

On 11 minutes, Rodgers flashed a low right-flank delivery across Aldershot’s box, but nobody was on hand to apply the finishing touch.

Two minutes later, the Shots took the lead in clinical fashion.

The goal came after Hylton kept the ball in play on the right before feeding it inside to Soares. The Barbados international cut inside Richman and blasted his 10-yard left-footer into the bottom right-hand corner.

Glover said: “I was disappointed with their goal. They’ve come off their shape and we haven’t dealt with it. We’ve stayed as a back eight, but when they’re coming in and penetrating the heart of the defence we need to tuck in as a group. Just for a couple of minutes we didn’t deal with it and got punished.”

Left-winger Kirk Hudson threatened to break clear in the 16th minute, only to be stopped in his tracks on the edge of the box by Prosser

In the 19th minute, Rodgers again found a good position on the right after being found by Dodds, and for a second time his low centre flew across the goalmouth with a dearth of predators in the middle.

Vale won a free-kick on the right flank in the 20th minute, which Dodds duly swung over into the heart of Aldershot’s box, where defender Lee Collins headed over from 10 yards.

After a frenetic start, the game started to settle down, but in the 27th minute. Edwards needed to be on his toes to stop Grant’s surging run on goal following his one-two with Davies.

Although Soares and Osborne enjoyed a lot of possession down the right, to his credit, Edwards owned the outside and generally stood firm in the face of regular assaults.

Rodgers had a 30-yard free-kick blocked by the home wall on the half-hour mark.

Griffith showed his defensive instincts in the 36th minute.

Shots full-back Rhys Day, brother of Welsh snooker player Ryan Day who watched from the stands, executed a delightful ball over the top. Grant appeared to be winning the race to collect the ball, but Griffith anticipated the danger, motoring inside from the right to snuff out the danger.

Richards should have done better in the 41st minute after successfully challenging Shots keeper Bull for a loose ball. Forced wide, the 26-year-old chose to shoot from an acute angle, but could only skew his effort in the side-netting as Vale finished the half strongly, culminating in Davies’s clearance off the line.

However, Shots were unrelenting in the second period and continued to press the visitors back. Anyon comfortably collected Hudson’s cross on 51 minutes before Hylton headed over from Harding’s set-piece and Richards and Rodgers, diving in tandem, were inches away from getting on the end of Dodds’s in-swinging free-kick.

Anyon was seeing plenty of the ball in dealing with the wet conditions competently. But his heart must have been fluttering apace on 62 minutes when beating Grant to the ball. However, in appearing to collect the bouncing ball in his arms, he relinquished possession when momentum propelled him outside his box. The onrushing Hylton ran on to the loose ball, burst past Anyon, but drilled his shot past the near post.

Anyon was called into action again in the 75th minute, blocking Soares’s angled-drive, and was then forced to tip over Harding’s deep cross, before Soares swept a 20-yarder just wide.

The introduction of strikers Danny Glover and James Lawrie, taking up a position on the right with Dodds switching to the left, injected life into Vale’s attack in the final 10 minutes.

On 83 minutes, Rodgers’s 25-yard speculative effort had all its power drained by a deflection, leaving it to fall harmlessly into Bull’s arms.

Seconds later, Lawrie provided Bull with a much sterner test as the stopper turned around the Northern Ireland under-19 international’s low sizzler from the edge of the box.

The Valiants kept pushing forward, but their last chance came in the 91st minute when Dodds, latched on to Glover’s cross, but directed his shot into Bull’s path.

Glover said: “It’s a long way for the fans to come for us not to take anything home with us.

“But credit to the boys. They were in the game all the way through. In the first 10 to 15 minutes we probably could have dealt with their formation better in the way their two wide boys came off their shape and did very well. Their record at home is excellent, they’re unbeaten and you can see why. They work the ball well and their movement going forward is very good.

“If we’d have dealt with that early doors, and they scored in the 13th minute, I think we would have come away with a 0-0.

“Both sides have had better chances to score late on, but neither took them.”

Aldershot: Bull, Osborne, Charles, Day, Blackburn, Soares, Harding, Davies, Hylton, Grant, Hudson. Subs not used: Chalmers, Morgan, Elvins, Donnelly, Newman.

Port Vale: Anyon, Griffith, Prosser, Collins, Paul Edwards, Dodds, Richman (Davidson 66), Howland, McCrory (Lawrie 80), Richards (Glover 79), Rodgers. Subs not used: Martin, McCombe.

Attendance: 3,039.

Referee: D Phillips ()