Battle To Resume As The Stoke Keep Shots In Sight

Basingstoke, who despite being bottom of the Conference South, had the result of the last round when they beat Chesterfield.

They have played on a ground leased from Viscount Camrose's estate since the 1940s. The nearest they have come to the third round was losing on penalties to Northampton in a second-round replay on the coldest night ever in Basingstoke. Yesterday, on a mild afternoon in December they might have made a little local piece of history but, in the end, could not quite hold out against their superior born-again neighbours.

From the start it was the Stoke who played the little pretty football that was going with Justyn McKay and Matthew Warner sporadically looking dangerous. Yet it was the Shots who nearly took the lead with virtually their only attack when a header from Rhys Day was cleared off the line.

'Pass the ball,' yelled Aldershot manager, Terry Brown, something that, by and large, had proved beyond them. They drifted offside, they failed to find team-mates, they were poor. On the stroke of half-time The Stoke took the lead.

A shot from Warner was deflected into the path of Joe Bruce who shot into the roof of the net from close range. 'I was delighted,' he said afterwards. 'I haven't scored this season and I don't score much and it just sort of came to me and went in.'

The Shots were booed off the pitch. 'I was already planning a bit of a rollicking prior to the goal,' said Brown. 'We played with a lot of fear in the first half.'

At half time there was a plug for a charity game at the Army stadium featuring Kenny Sansom, DJ Spoony and Pete Doherty (I offer 16-1 against that they all show).

Aldershot upped the tempo on the resumption. John Grant's header was well-saved by Stuart Searle and Ryan Scott put the rebound against the post.

Louis Soares was beginning to dominate on the right and sending over dangerous crosses but elsewhere they failed to deliver the killer pass.

Aldershot had shown that they were superior but only fleetingly and when they did they were profligate. The corners mounted up.

The goalmouth scrambles proliferated but the scoreline remained the same. The Stoke were hanging on in there, just about standing firm in the face of Aldershot's aerial assault.

A header from Molseley was acrobatically saved by Searle. The ball was cleared, pumped back in and Grant stooped to head the ball in. It had been a long time coming and was deserved on weight of possession if not quality of play.

Brown said: 'I expect all the Basingstoke people could see it coming and I doubt any of the Aldershot people saw it coming.'

The remainder of the game passed without dramatic incident. Darren Barnard's airshot when attempting to plough in another of his high crosses being rather symptomatic of a team performance long on huff and short on guile. The sharing of the spoils yesterday means it will be both teams off to Viscount Camrose's gaff on Tuesday week. 'We've got to go there, roll our sleeves up, scrap and fight,' said Brown.