With Damien Spencer and Alex Rodman both out injured, Shots manager Dean Holdsworth shuffled his pack for this game, against a Rotherham side that have recently been on a rapid slide down the League Two table. Peter Vincenti pushed furthest forward, Anthony Straker pushed up into midfield and Clayton Fortune slotted in at left back.
Finally Shots started a home match with tempo and deservedly took the lead on 5 minutes. Charles, still up from a set piece, found himself in the centre forward position – and as he has done so many times now, showed the forwards how to finish, coolly slotting home a Straker cross.
Shots players and fans were lifted by the good start...Rotherham were stunned and assumed the look of a losing side all too easily when just six minutes later Aldershot doubled their lead. Danny Hylton latched onto Nick Fenton's poorly hit back pass and surged toward goal. He calmly rounded Jamie Annerson and then unselfishly pulled the ball back to Vincenti, who took a moment to control the ball and let a retrieving defender run past, before slotting into the empty net.
Heady stuff for a Shots team who were not used to leading so convincingly so early on. For a while it appeared to suit them and they went in search of a third goal. Hylton had the ball in the net, but well after the whistle had gone for offside and he received a yellow card for doing so. Another fine move saw McGlashan, Hylton and Vincenti all combine, but neither of the latter two could quite get a toe on the end of McGlashan's low ball across the face of goal.
However, as we all know, Shots rarely do things the easy way and on 32 minutes..that man ALF did what he always does against Shots, slotting home from an acute angle. Young, Charles or Jones could have prevented it, but it squirmed under Young, Charles left it to Jones. Jones hesitated too long and the ball trickled in....a truly shocking goal to concede, particularly with Shots so far on top at the time.
So, 2-1 at half time, but it could easily have been all square within two minutes of the re-start, as Le Fondre broke clear on the right and let fly with a powerful shot from 25 yards, which Young could only parry. Fortunately for Shots, no other Millers player was on hand to punish a Shots defence that was clearly still in the dressing room.
Shots failed to heed the warning and on 56 minutes Le fondre latched onto a long clearance from Annerson and coolly lobbed Young for his 24th goal of another prolific season and boy, does he love to score against Shots!!
Holdsworth, clearly disappointed to see his side give a away a two goal lead, gambled and signalled his intent to go for the win by bringing on Sills for Fortune and going 4-4-2. But it was the Millers who almost took the lead, through that man ALF again! This time, his blistering strike from 25 yards flew past Young and fortunately, inches past his right hand post too!
Youngster Adam Mekki came on for McGlashan and won a corner with his first attacking run, but Shots couldn't get any real momentum going and the game began to fizzle out.
So, after such a promising start, Shots fell away and ultimately stumbled to their 20th draw from 45 league matches this season.
Shots: Young 7 Herd 7 Jones 6 Charles 7 Fortune 6 (Sills) McGlashan 7 (Mekki) Halls 6 Guttridge 6 Straker 7 Hylton 7 Vincenti 7 Att: 2107 (152 away fans)