Brown Fears For His Job

Last updated : 30 August 2005 By Stray Shots Team
In the article, Terry Brown admitted for the first time that he is fighting to save his job after this latest disaster saw Aldershot Town plummet to the foot of the table for the first time in its short but sweet history.

Brown's troubles multiplied in the face of a second successive home defeat to a part-time side this season — one which led to a chorus of boos from some disgruntled fans.

Mounting injury problems and a summer of disappointment in the transfer market has clearly taken its toll on the Shots, who, on this display, look a shadow of the side which reached the Play-Offs for the last two seasons.

But while the boss tries desperately to re-assemble his troops and mount a challenge to climb off the foot of the Conference table, he confessed for the first time that he's doing so to remain in the Shots hot seat.

He said: “My aim at the moment is to keep myself in a job.

“You're at a senior club, you've suffered back-to-back defeats at home against sides that, in all honesty and no disrespect to Tamworth or Altrincham, we should be beating if we have title aspirations.

“If I was a supporter without knowing the facts, I'd be asking too why are we in this trouble as well. I can point to a catalogue of injuries but I have to look at the bigger picture.

“Collectively, we as a squad, including me, are bottom of the league, so I have to get more out of the eleven, whatever eleven it is. There is more in that squad of players and I've got to get more out of them.

“I know its an ill-balanced side but it's a simple factor of getting down to the basics, being bigger and stronger and more disciplined in both boxes. There's nothing else I need to focus on.”

In truth, although the result on paper looks worse than it actually was, Brown clearly has a problem at both ends of the pitch.

As he rightly pointed out, his side had chances to win two games of football on Saturday, but showed a distinct lack of edge in the final third, while demonstrating naivety at the other.

Two identical right wing crosses from Altrincham's Colin Potts within the space of seven second half minutes proved the difference between the two sides as woeful defending handed the Conference newcomers the points in an ultimate smash-and-grab raid.

The good news for Brown is that, one by one, his injured players are starting to make comebacks.

Skipper Steve Watson played his way through the pain barrier for 90 crucial minutes while fellow recent injury victims Tarkan Mustafa and Tim Sills also enjoyed a piece of the action – the latter albeit for an hour, clearly struggling with his foot.

Once Gary Holloway, Darren Barnard, John Brough and Ahmed Deen come back to their best, this form will surely be a thing of the past.

But as Brown rightly said afterwards, it's his current squad which need to be cuter in both boxes if they are to harbour ambitions of recovering from this early-season slump and launch a Play-Off bid.

Both a half-fit Sills and on-loan Scott Guyett saw headers fall straight into the arms of goalkeeper Stuart Coburn, while Nick Crittenden fired over the bar from just outside the box.

Aldershot's somewhat unconvincing start led to Brown changing the system, with a more attacking 3-4-3 seemingly doing the trick – Matt Somner moving to the back, Bertrand Cozic joining Watson in the centre and Crittenden linking with the attack.

This indeed led to their best spell of the game with Mustafa, Watson and Somner with a glancing header, all going close to breaking the deadlock.

Altrincham showed precious little in the opening half but in strike duo Gary Williams and Colin Little, they showed enough to suggest they could cause problems on the break.

Williams wasted their only two chances of the half with an ambitious volley which flew miles over the top and a curling effort, which gave Shots keeper Nikki Bull no trouble at all.

But to the frustration of the home fans, the Shots never really came out for the second half and as the minutes ticked by, you got the feeling that Altrincham could still steal something.

Indeed, that proved the case on 71 minutes when Lewis Hamilton allowed Potts too much space of the right to ping over a curling cross which was met by the powerful head of substitute James Olsen, who had been on the field just four minutes.

Altrincham were now in the ascendancy and should have added a second just four minutes later when a horror pass from Tobi Jinadu was cut out by Potts, who released Williams, only for the lively striker to fire over the bar when in a good position.

But still the Shots didn't learn their lesson and three minutes later they were punished again.

Not for the first time, Potts was given too much room on the right flank, he floated in a far post cross for Little to creep in between three flat-footed Aldershot defenders to head past a rooted Bull.

The shell-shocked Shots tried desperately to salvage something but twice the woodwork intervened to pile on the misery.

Guyett's header from Crittenden's cross cannoned off the crossbar to safety before Stephen Hawes clattered an attempted clearance off the foot of his own post to deny Chris McPhee from sneaking in.

That just about summed it up for Shots fans, who would share Brown's sentiments afterwards.
“We created enough chances but at the moment there is not enough belief in the final third and the goals we gave away were very disappointing,” he said.

“The last three goals we have conceded have been identical and these are the things that we can improve upon and will.

“You are top of the league for a reason and you're bottom of the league for a reason. We are bottom of the league because we've conceded soft goals and we haven't scored at the other end.

“If you do neither of those things, it's academic whether you run the midfield or not.”

SHOTS: Bull 6; Mustafa 6, Hamilton 5 (sub Sulaiman 73mins), Jinadu 5, Guyett 6, Watson 6, CRITTENDEN 7, Somner 6, Cozic 6, Sills 7 (Brayley 64, 6), McPhee 6. Not used: Winfield, Scott, Weait.

Ref: M Bull. Att: 2,235.

With thanks to the Aldershot News.