Aldershot Town 2 Forest Green Rovers 1
Aldershot emerged victors at the Recreation Ground in a drama-filled and controversial encounter agains Forest Green Rovers.
Both sides were reduced to 10 men as firstly Tim Sills for the Shots and then Guy Madjo for the visitors saw red. Sills was adjudged to have caught defender Damon Searle with a flaying elbow, the pair having previously tussled.
Madjo also saw red, having given his team an early lead, but in controversial circumstances he too was shown red for doing nothing more than appearing to dangle a leg in the direction of an Aldershot defender.
The visitors took the lead after seven minutes through some clever play from on-loan striker Madjo. The Shots levelled after 19 minutes through a Greg Heald header and went ahead on 31 minutes from another header courtesy of Tobi Jinadu.
Forest Green pressed desperately for the equaliser but came away with nothing as Aldershot continued their push for a play-off spot. The opener from Madjo was all his own making. Out pacing and out muscling the Shots defence, his effort squeezed pass Nikki Bull, surprising everyone as a cross seemed likely.
That was the signal for veteran Brian Tinnion to inspire an Aldershot fightback. Tinnion's corner found Heald in a congested area, but Heald's header went past Ryan Clarke for the leveller.
Inspired Shots then went close through a Sills header, and after 31 minutes Aldershot took the lead. Rovers defender Sekani Simpson gave away a needless free-kick with a deliberate hand ball. Simpson was shown a yellow card and the resulting free-kick by Tinnion on the edge of the penalty area found an unmarked Jinadu to power his header wide of Ryan Clarke.
Rovers returned for the second half with a genuine and gutsy attempt to get something from the game. Matt Gadsby went close, and two clear-cut chances to Julian Alsop should have been capitalised on, but in the end Rovers fell short.
The game, however, will be better remembered for two poor refereering decisions which affected the outcome of the match.