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Andy Liddicott reports on a majestic performance by the Shots.
After returning to winning ways the week before against Southampton Women, the Shots were back on the road to make the short journey down the M3 to play BTC Riverside, formerly Riverside Strikers, at Eastleigh.
Two changes from the week before saw Stacey Ireland come into the midfield at the expense of Carys Potter and Laura Wallman started up front in preference of Nicky Moore.
In the first exchanges Riverside started the better, The Shots, facing into a heavy wind, found it hard to clear the ball, However the back four of Marsh, Grover, Coles and Funnell managed to keep them restricted to long range shots that Hubbard in the Shots goal dealt with. The Shots started to get to grips with the conditions and started to use the width well.
Their real first major attack saw the Shots take the lead. A flowing counter-attack move caught Riverside out. The ball came down the right side; Marlow breezed past her marker and headed towards goal. North had burst from her midfield position to arrive at the critical time to finish of the move on 22 minutes.
This gave the Shots the confidence and the football started to flow. On 32 minutes the Shots increased their lead - after some great work by North, the Shots skipper managed to work the ball out wide to Wallman who fired past the keeper.
Half Time: BTC Riverside 0 Aldershot Town 2
After half time Riverside started to press, but found that the Shots defence had closed shop for the afternoon, this also created a lot more space and the midfield of Shepherd, North and Hann came more into the game. The ever-busy Wallman and Marlow were giving the home side a torrid afternoon.
After 65 minutes the ball was worked to the left, Laura Hann received the ball, skipped around her marker and made sufficient space for herself to fire in an unstoppable shot from 18 yards, which sailed past the helpless Riverside keeper, and high into the net.
5 minutes later the Shots won another corner, and made the game safe. Hann played the ball short to Funnell, who crossed for Coles to out jump everyone and place a downward header into the net.
As the game was coming to a close the Shots finished the game off in style. The ball was again worked from the midfield area, it found Laura Hann, her great vision found Wallman free and she made no mistake with her shot.
Full Time: BTC Riverside 0 Aldershot Town 5
Andy's Analysis
"We learning how to be patient and frustrate teams. The whole team today produced the goods - set plays, passing, and the goals scored were of a high quality.
We've got some big games coming up, and putting a nice little run together will help us approach these games. The most satisfying thing today was when a complete stranger commented on the high standard the Shots played today."
Player of the Match was awarded to the whole team.