Aldershot Town 3, Chorley 3

ALDERSHOT Town assistant manager Anwar Uddin says the Shots’ next two opponents will be “buzzing to get their revenge”.

The Shots make the long trip to face Dover Athletic on Saturday before tackling Eastleigh in a rearranged game at the Silverlake Stadium next Tuesday.

Aldershot walloped Dover 4-0 at the EBB on October 8 and saw off Eastleigh 3-1 on home turf on New Year’s Day.

“Against those two teams in particular I thought we were brilliant – Dover at home was a great performance and we won 4-0, Eastleigh at home was another good performance. Both teams will be absolutely buzzing to get their revenge on us,” said Uddin.

“We’re going into those games with confidence and they are going to have a point to prove because they are going to want revenge. But home or away we equip ourselves really well, our performance against Wrexham two weeks ago was spot on. If we can take a little bit of that into our next two games, I’m confident that we can get some points.”

The Shots will be keen to return to winning ways despite extending their unbeaten league run to five games with a thrilling 3-3 draw at home to battling bottom side Chorley, who have drawn a league high 13 games already this season.

“It was a fair reflection of the game overall, but it feels more like a defeat than a point gained because we conceded late,” said Uddin.

“Yes they are bottom of the league, but they brought in four players and it was always going to be a tough game because they have drawn the most games in the league, but the fact that we played poorly and still found ourselves in front with five minutes to go and couldn’t hold on is the biggest disappointment.”

The Shots twice fell behind before Craig Tanner and Mo Bettamer ensured Aldershot went in at the break level at 2-2. Dean Rance then headed the Shots into what looked to be a winning lead before the game took a dramatic late twist.

Robbie Tinkler was sent off for handball and Alex Newby netted from the spot, his second of the game after giving Chorley an early lead, to snatch a point for the Lancashire visitors.

Curiously, it was Aldershot’s first game since central defender Max Hunt and midfielder Jack Powell’s loan spells ended.

“The result would suggest that we missed Max and Jack but you are always going to miss good players regardless of whether you win, lose or draw,” said Uddin.

“We are always going to get better, improve, progress but we find ourselves always having to deal with a few issues. At the start of the season it was injuries and players not available, and as the season has progressed we’ve brought in players where we felt we needed that type of player in that position, so to lose Max and Powelly, for example, it’s difficult, but ultimately when you haven’t got the funds to get a like-for-like replacement you’ve got to make do with what you’ve got, you’ve got to be creative and you’ve got to create a system and an ethos at the club regardless of who steps in so the momentum continues, and I think we are doing that.

“It’s good that we’ve given some players a chance who have not featured as much as we would like.”

One thing the draw with Chorley did do was continue Aldershot’s momentum and made it just one defeat in nine games as they eye up mid-table.

“We want that run to continue,” said Uddin. “It’s been really, really good, and, yes, we look at Saturday as a little bit of a disappointment but ultimately we kept our run going.”