For the final home game of the season, Tara Coles dropped to the bench with an injury problem while Kirsty Palfreyman was unavailable. Manager Jamie Woodfield was boosted with the addition of Laura Funnell to his squad, following the winger’s return from her knee injury.
The Shots started the brighter of the two sides and didn’t give Shanklin any time to settle on the ball. Goalkeeper Lesley Hubbard was untroubled in the opening quarter-hour of the game, collecting several over-hit passes from the edge of her area.
The new back three of Di Smith, Holly Gayler and Amber Marsh closed down any danger from the Shanklin front two and the two wide midfielders of Nikki Moore and Kirsty Strachan were dominating their full backs.
The Shots’ excellent grafting first-half performance was summed up by the central midfield trio of Sian Houghton, Emma North and Caz Shephard, who were hassling the Shanklin midfield all afternoon long.
On 20-minutes, Shanklin dodged an almost-certain red card when Ferguson, running down the far side, received an elbow in the throat from a defending player, however the youngster was able to have the last laugh when on the stroke of half-time, Moore was played through from midfield and angled her run at the Shanklin goalkeeper, driving in a low shot.
The Shanklin shot-stopper was only able to parry the effort – right into the path of Ferguson who slammed her shot home into the net to give the Shots the lead at the interval.
HALF TIME: Aldershot Town 1 Shanklin 0
Aldershot came out after the break with all guns blazing. Winning the second balls and closing down the Shanklin players to regain possession with a real workman like performance so it came as no surprise when the Shots doubled their lead on 55-minutes, when a loose ball fell to North who cannoned a shot from the edge of the area past the despairing keeper into the roof of the net.
Tempers began to rise at this point, and in a moment not dissimilar to Funnell’s accident in 2007, Marsh received a high foot in the face, leaving the youngster with a badly-bruised face. She was substituted soon after and Funnell made her comeback and was quickly in the thick of the action with her tough-tackling, no-nonsense approach.
The Shots were left aghast when the same player, already booked for dissent towards referee Graeme Train, elbowed Jade Ferguson in the face again as the pair bore down on the Shanklin goal. Screams from the Shots supporters and technical area came for the red card, but Train allowed play to continue.
The Shots were starting to lose focus, and this showed when they allowed Shanklin back into the game with less than 5 minutes to play.
However, it was Ferguson who secured all three points in the sixth minute of added time, when she ran down the far side, spotted the ‘keeper off the line and looped the ball straight over the top of her and in at the near post.
FULL TIME: Aldershot Town 3 Shanklin 1
The Shots: Lesley Hubbard, Amber Marsh (Laura Funnell), Holly Gayler, Di Smith, Sian Houghton, Emma North, Caz Shepherd, Jade Ferguson, Tracy Marlow, Nikki Moore and Kirsty Strachen.
Un-used: Tara Coles and Lilly Pedra.
Speaking to the Stray Shots after the match, Ladies boss Woodfield said: “This was a great result for us today.
”I asked the ladies to prove today how good they were and they certainly did that!
”It was a great game to watch and we fully deserved the victory. We know we can beat any team on our day – we just need to be more consistent. We now look forward to our remaining three league games of this season.”
Ladies Secretary Matt Leary concluded: ”We expected a bit of a bruising encounter and that’s exactly what we got.
”Shanklin are a tough side and have earned their lead at the top of the table, but when you get the opposing manager admitting at the end that we were the better side, there isn’t really much higher praise the ladies can get.
”Add to that, we had the support of our local rivals Bracknell Town who are battling with Shanklin for the title, so it was nice to have them at the game. The ladies fully deserved their three points today – it was eleven exemplary performances that combined into one exemplary team performance, right from the first kick to the final whistle.
”We now travel to Beaconsfield SYCOB this weekend and hope to pick up three more points, but we know that they are fighting for survival so they will be up for this one.”