ALDERSHOT TOWN fell to a second successive 1-0 defeat on Saturday afternoon when Andy Scott’s men failed to find a cutting edge at the Ray Mac Stadium.
A first half of few and far between chances saw a fairly uninspiring forty-five minutes in blustery Wiltshire on Saturday afternoon, much to the disappointment of the strong Aldershot following.
With a little under half of the crown made up of Shots supporters, the performance on the pitch never really threatened to match the off-pitch efforts from the noisy visiting faithful.
On 5 minutes, Glenn Belezika picked up a yellow card for his tackle on Mark Molesley, but other than an in-swinging cross from Molesley on 22 minutes which was met with a glancing Aaron Wickham header which smashed off the crossbar, the truth was that neither side deserved anything more than the 0-0 half time score-line suggested.
HALF TIME: Salisbury City 0 Aldershot Town 0
The second half continued in much the same manner – a dull and fairly lifeless affair.
Brett Williams saw an effort harmlessly fly over the bar within three minutes of the re-start, before the home side loosely threatened four minutes later when a Dan Fitchett shot went wide of the post, before a short time later Adam Webster became frustrated and picked up a yellow for a foul on Fitchett.
With 61 minutes on the clock, the home side brought on Elliott Frear for Ben Wright and thecrucial blow came on 69 minutes when the hosts launched another of their direct ball counter attacks.
In a carbon copy of the Shots first half effort, a cross from the left was met by the head of Theo Lewis who managed to steer the ball passed Glenn Morris and in to the back of the Aldershot net.
Lewis soon picked up a yellow card, before Scott tried to change things by taking off Jordan Roberts and swapping him for Manny Oyeleke, who unfortunately looked well off the form he has produced in his previous games.
Ten minutes later, Lewis made way for Ryan Brett as the home side began the professional task of killing time in order to secure the points, and by the time Scott acted to put on some fresh legs in order to get something from the game, he was far, far too late when he brought on Jack Maloney for Molesley and Wickham made way for Cameron Brown with just minutes of the game remaining and no time to make any sort of impact.
FULL TIME: Salisbury City 1 Aldershot Town 0
Salisbury City: Puddy, Belezika, Clarke, Wilson, Ruddick, Kamdjo, Wellard, McPhee, Lewis (86 min for Brett), Fitchett and Wright (61 min for Frear).
Subs: Hart, George, Feeney, Brett (86 min) and Frear (61 min).
Aldershot Town: Morris, Oastler, Goodman, Webster, Barker, Rowlands, Stanley, Oyeleke (75 min for Roberts), Molesley (87 min for Maloney), B Williams and Wickham (87 min for Brown).
Subs: Douglas, Roberts (75 min), Maloney (87 min), Brown (87 min) and L Williams.
Attendance: 1155 (including 455 Aldershot supporters).
Referee: L Swabey