From our special correspondents:
(Paul Shrubb Testimonial)
Charlton Athletic brought a full strength side to the Recreation Ground tonight, including our former player Chris Powell, to honour Shots legend Paul Shrubb, who also scouts for the
The two teams lined up as follows:
ALDERSHOT
CHARLTON ATHLETIC: ELLIOTT MONTAOUAKIL POWELL FAYE FORTUNE MACARTHY CHRISTIANSEN
Rhys Day's absence was explained by a hamstring injury from last season flaring up, Not good news, but we must wait and see what the actual situation is.
Shots started brightly, playing some good football, and Rob Elvins came closest to opening the scoring on 12 minutes when his screaming shot was just tipped over the bar by the Charlton keeper. The Shots carried on with the good play for the first half hour and could claim to be the better side, keeping the ball on the floor and playing fluent passing football. The Strays special correspondent said that if Charlton were to score it would be very much against the run of play. The back four appeared to be solid against their highly rated opposition.
Next to go close was Dave von-Winfield, who also saw a shot go wide after arriving late at the far post on 40 minutes. That was about all the action for the first half as the Shots went in at a very creditable 0-0. Considering we lost this fixture 8-0 two years ago it could be said we have improved slightly.
Shots started the second half by substituting captain and keeper Nikki Bull with Mikel Jaimez-Ruiz and the left back known today as Starkes with trialist Marvin Patterson. Within two minutes last season's top scorer John Grant saw a shot go narrowly wide. Six minutes later Shots had the ball in the net, only for Elvins' effort to be disallowed for a challenge on the keeper.
Charlton made two substitutions, bringing on Todorov and Ambrose for Iwelumo and Christiansen and this was followed by Rob Elvins being replaced by Jonny Dixon and Louis Chalmers giving way to Sean Davies.
The pivotal moment came with 12 minutes remaining when Charlton squandered a golden opportunity to take the lead from the penalty spot only to blast it extremely wide. The penalty as awarded after Anthony Charles fouled a Charlton forward in the box.
A late substitution saw Louis Soares replaced by Danny Hylton as the Shots searched for what could have been a deserved, if somewhat unlikely, win. It was not to be, but the Shots can take credit from a very good performance against a team very much higher up the ladders than we are.
The official; attendance for tonight's game was 1505 - and let's remember that the whole event was for the benefit of a Shots Legend - and a very nice man - Paul Shrubb. Everyone at the Stray Shots wishes Paul all the best in his fight and we hope tonight helps him along that path.