The Shots go into the game on the back of an eight-game unbeaten run, with the four wins and three draws from the seven games in March affording boss Holdsworth the “npower League 2 Manager of the Month” award, which was announced live on Sky Sports News on Friday morning (8th).
The former Wimbledon striker is, as always, positive about what his players are capable of. Speaking after last Saturday’s hard-earned goalless draw at Southend, he said, ”We’ve bossed the game and I thought we played very, very well. We were away from home and you’d accept a clean sheet.
”I want to carry on playing well and I want the players to perform. We’ve come here and got a point - would I have taken it? Yes. Did I believe we could take more? I did, yeah."
Invariably, this game will evoke specific memories of three matches from the past, the first two of which were in the FA Cup fifth round in February 1979: Tommy McAnearney’s Aldershot FC and Shrewsbury Town (who, at that time, included current boss Graham Turner as their Player/Manager) drew 2-2 in the original tie in north East Hampshire before the Shrews triumphed 3-1 after extra time at Gay Meadow in the replay.
The aforementioned run was the furthest that the “old” Shots had ever progressed in the FA Cup. As part of the celebrations, five of that team, namely John Dungworth (who scored eight goals in the run, including all three in the fifth round), Glen Johnson, Joe Jopling, Alex McGregor and Alan Wooler are due to be Guests of Honour at Saturday’s game.
Former Aldershot FC favourites Robin Stepney, who played against Shrewsbury Town in the FA Cup third round in 1960-61 (scoring in a 2-2 draw in the replay and also in the “old” Shots’ 2-0 win in the second replay) and Jack Howarth, who wore Shots red and blue 468 times and scored 196 goals (August 1965 to January 1972 and November 1972 to January 1977) are also Guests of Honour on Saturday.
The third game that comes to mind is the Conference play-off final in 2004. Terry Brown’s Aldershot Town and Shrewsbury Town battled to a 1-1 draw (after extra time) at Stoke City’s Britannia Stadium before the Shropshire side triumphed (again) by winning the resultant penalty shoot-out 3-0. Aldershot’s Tim Sills is the only player remaining at either club from that day.
Going in to the match, Aldershot’s 53 points from 40 games sees them occupying 13th place in the table. Shrewsbury, meanwhile, currently occupy the third automatic promotion place with 66 points from the same number of matches.
Having scored just 42 league goals, the Shots are currently one of the three lowest-scoring sides in League 2; only Stockport County (41) and Bradford City (38) have scored less. Shrewsbury have scored 64 league goals, whilst both of today’s teams have conceded 46.
The Shots are unbeaten at home since February 26th, when Port Vale were the victors and the ever-upbeat Holdsworth says, “We’re really looking forward to playing back on home turf in front of our wonderful fans and we’ll be doing our best to ensure that they have something to cheer about by the end of the 90 minutes.”
One player with an added incentive on Saturday will be Shots' right back Ben Herd (pictured below right), who made 153 + 10 appearances for our visitors (with whose fans he was extremely popular) between August 2005 and May 2009, scoring three goals.
A couple of milestones to look out for are:
If the game is drawn, it will set a new Aldershot Town club record for league draws in a season (18).
If striker Damian Spencer scores, it will the 50th goal of his career.
Shots Team News
Winger Adam Mekki misses out due a calf strain, which is expected to keep him sidelined for a couple of weeks.
Central defender Doug Bergqvist and striker Reece Connolly remain on loan at Dorchester Town, whilst ‘keeper Jordan Clement is at Maidenhead United on the same terms.
Striker Jack Randall is sidelined for the rest of the season with a broken leg.
Shots from: Jamie Young, Ben Herd, Luke Guttridge, Darren Jones, Anthony Charles (captain), Ben Harding, Damian Spencer, Anthony Straker, Danny Hylton, Manny Panther, Aaron Morris, Clayton Fortune, Jermaine McGlashan, Wade Small, John Halls, Peter Vincenti, Tim Sills, Mikhael Jaimez-Ruiz, Alex Rodman.
The Opposition
Shrewsbury boss Graham Turner has seen his side put together a four-game unbeaten run, with the last three of those being victories.
Speaking to www.shrewsburytown.com after last Saturday’s 4-1 victory over Macclesfield, Turner said, "It was an excellent result, but games like these are never easy. Macclesfield could have been a handful after taking the lead as they’ve got some big lads in there, but in the end, we got the ball down and passed it around well.”
As for his team’s chances of automatic promotion, Turner stated, "We’ve done our job and that’s all we can do. We’ll have to hope that somewhere along the line, the other teams come unstuck and we keep our run going.”
The danger man for the Shots defence will be 29-year-old midfielder Mark Wright, who is the Shrews’ current top-scorer with 12 goals in all competitions. However, midfielder Lionel Ainsworth and forward Matt Harrold will also pose a threat.
Harrold’s strike partner James Collins is one of the four nominees for the March “npower League 2 Player of the Month” award.
The Shrews from: Chris Neal, David Raven, Mat Sadler, Sean McAllister, Ian Sharps (captain), Shane Cansdell-Sherriff, Mark Wright, Kevin McIntyre, Matt Harrold, Lewis Neal, Nicky Wroe, Kris Bright, James Collins, Niall Canavan, Lionel Ainsworth, Benjamin van den Broek, Jermaine Grandison, Connor Goldson, Craig Disley, Nathan Elder, Danny Taylor, Jon Taylor, Ben Smith, Kelvin Lomax, Temitope Obadeyi, David Davies, Hakan Duyan, Tom Bradshaw.
- You can visit the official Shrewsbury Town website here.
Taking Charge
Michael Naylor will be taking charge of the match and will be assisted by Matt Stewart and Adrian Tranter. Tony Mason is the fourth official.
Weather Forecast
The BBC Weather forecast for matchday is sunny intervals accompanied by a 7mph south-easterly wind. The daytime temperature is expected to be 17oC, dropping to 8oC in the evening.
Ticket News
Tickets for the match are set at:
Adult seats: £19, terrace: £17.
Concession (Over-60s, Military and students [both on production of ID cards] only) seats: £15, terrace: £13.
Under-16s seats: £8, terrace £6.
For information on Family and Disabled ticket prices, please click here.
The match is not all-ticket and supporters can pay at the turnstiles on the day.
Other News
- BBC Radio Surrey
Supporters unable to make the match can hear live coverage on BBC Radio Surrey (104.6FM), which is brought to you by Gavin Denison.
Supporters are reminded that there is NO INTERNET COVERAGE of this match.