Ricky Newman (left) and Danny Hylton at half-time
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Shots self-destruct in first half fiasco
By Charlie OliverFebruary 02, 2009
Coca-Cola League Two
Aldershot Town 2 Rochdale 4
Rochdale may be named after a valley but its football team gave Aldershot a mountain to climb as early as half-time on Saturday.
As many as four goals were shipped by The Shots in fewer than 30 minutes in what was an embarrassingly one-sided first half. Fortress Rec was more like a paper fort, cut down to size and blown away on the biting wind.
While there was plenty of astonishingly inept play to help Rochdale on their merry way, it would be unfair to gloss over the visitors’ performance; Dale were as good as Aldershot were bad.
Aldershot, afforded no time to settle on the ball, simply could not cope with Rochdale’s attacking quartet of Nicky Adams, Will Buckley, Chris Dagnall and Joe Thompson, who were superbly prompted by captain Gary Jones from central midfield.
While it looked like men against boys, Aldershot’s young side cannot even claim that; Dale’s front four are all aged 22 or under and Thompson, still a teenager, helped himself to a 17-minute hat-trick.
Rochdale were simply too sharp, in all departments, both physically and mentally, against a side that is stuck in a rut and struggling to get out of it.
The Shots’ recent return makes painful reading: just two points from the last 18 available in League Two; no win in 2009; three league defeats in a row. Hopes of a New Year push towards the play-offs are fast perishing, first due to postponements and now a rotten dose of the post-Christmas blues.
What Gary Waddock’s Shots could do with most is an injection of fresh blood, a few new faces to stoke up the dressing room and to allow some new ventures on the pitch.
The side is predictable and opponents are beginning to dismantle Aldershot’s 4-4-2 formation and attacking intentions with ease. Deprived of the room to play their football, Aldershot currently lack the belief, nous and the nastiness to fight their corner.
But Waddock has no funds available with which to toughen up his squad, so he must make do with what he has — which does not include a fox-in-the box striker, a midfield general or a specialist right back, for starters.
That squad was hauled in on Sunday to watch a DVD of this game and it would have been extremely uncomfortable viewing.
“The players will be in tomorrow and will have to look at their own performances, the whole lot of it,” said Waddock, speaking after the match on Saturday. “And it will be another [DVD] nightmare.”
Not that the manager was too downbeat towards his squad. “The group have not all of a sudden become a bad one,” he said. “But they must take the criticism as much as they take the plaudits. We’ve given ourselves mountains to climb in the past but today’s was just far too high.”
Indeed it was — certainly loftier than The Pennines, in whose southern shadow Rochdale lies. Perhaps it was about as towering as Mount Blanc, to match Rochdale’s white shirts.
Although, in truth, had Rochdale taken all their first half chances, it could have been a mountain of Everest proportions. Not that it matters too much; on current form, forget mountains — Aldershot would struggle to climb a molehill.
Thompson, pushed up front from midfield, was the chief beneficiary, first nodding home unchallenged from a corner. With Mikhael Jaimez-Ruiz — Nikki Bull was still out with a groin problem — rooted to the spot, the ball bounced home agonisingly slowly, in off the post.
Jaimez-Ruiz does not look like a man confident of keeping a clean sheet and his kicking is especially jittery. But he was not really culpable for any of the goals in this game and made some good saves to boot. The problems lay in front of him.
Dagnall had already hit the inside of a post after a poor backpass from Anthony Charles when Charles mis-kicked, trying to clear Adams’s cross, after Scott Davies had given the ball away. Thompson reacted first and turned the rebound past Jaimez-Ruiz.
That was two goals in six minutes and it became three in 17 when, after an error up field by Kirk Hudson, Rochdale broke and Thompson beat Rhys Day far too easily at the far post and headed his hat-trick goal past Jaimez-Ruiz.
Waddock had made changes after Tuesday night’s collapse at Brentford, including a surprise recall for Dean Howell at left back, in place of Anthony Straker.
Rochdale, chiefly through Adams, exploited Aldershot’s soft left to devastating effect and Howell looked just like a man who had not started a competitive match for more than three months.
To be fair to Howell, he was given little support from Hudson, who looked lost all game on the left of midfield, having been moved from the right, to accommodate the recalled Louie Soares.
Ricky Newman, drafted into central midfield to add gravitas in the absence of Ben Harding, whose achilles injury had forced him to miss his first league game since Waddock took over, was booked early on and the edge of his game immediately blunted.
Danny Hylton, in for Rob Elvins, was sacrificed at half-time.
So, the changes did not work, to put it mildly — and Waddock did not disagree.
“The changes had no effect whatsoever,” said Waddock. “Players are being given opportunities but they aren’t being taken. It’s down to the players. There becomes a stage when yes, you say, there was your chance and you had to take it. But, at the moment, it’s very difficult to change things around.”
Waddock accepts that he must get on with the job in hand, with his squad as it is. This is the biggest challenge of his time at Aldershot to date and he said that he was looking forward to meeting it — but that his players must too.
“We continue to make mistakes and we’re being punished. But you’ve got to learn from them. And we’re not doing that. The higher level you play at, players make fewer mistakes. But we continue to make a lot of them.
“We have got a good group but it’s about more than ability. It’s about working hard and showing desire and commitment. And that is not happening at the moment.
“We need some leadership and leaders. We must all pull together.”
Captain Day did force a fine save from Frank Fielding late in the half, with a towering header from a corner, just after a shot on target from Soares had been greeted by ironic cheers from the Aldershot fans.
But matters were to get worse before they got better. In first-half injury-time Jaimez-Ruiz did well to save first Adams’s free-kick and then Buckley’s low drive. But the ‘keeper was still trying to recover his position when Cieran Toner smashed the loose ball into the top corner from 30 yards.
That was the goal that really made the mountain unsurpassable. But at least Aldershot showed a little character after the break. Granted, a comeback of greater proportions than the one which salvaged a 3-3 draw with Bury in October was never really on the cards.
Rory McArdle and the excellent Dagnall might both have extended Rochdale’s lead before manager Keith Hill decided to rest Buckley and Dagnall for tougher challenges to come.
Nonetheless, substitutes Marvin Morgan, fit after a knee injury, and Andy Sandell were both impressive in the second half. With 15 minutes to go Sandell broke into Rochdale’s half and played a fine pass to Hudson, whose cross was stabbed home by Morgan.
Five minutes later and Morgan, racing onto John Grant’s fine pass, was hacked down by Nathan Stanton. A penalty and a red card, according to referee Penton, even if Morgan said afterwards that he had been fouled outside the area. Davies did his usual, smashing home the spot-kick.
Had Morgan been awarded a second penalty for a blatant push, in the last-minute, who knows, perhaps Everest could have been conquered by Waddock’s men.
But they deserved only defeat from this match and the manager was quick to acknowledge that.
“We lost the game in the first half,” he said. “We didn’t give ourselves a chance. Did we play better in the second half? The game was gone by then. You have to ask if Rochdale took their foot off the gas.
“One thing I do know,” added the manager, “I’d like to thank the crowd. They were superb throughout and kept on singing, when they could have given us grief. The players must respond to that support and show a bit of character. Let’s see what we’ve got on Tuesday against Chesterfield.”
Anything more than was on show in the first half of this match will do, for starters.
Aldershot Town: Jaimez-Ruiz, Blackburn, Howell, Day (Sandell 58), Charles, Newman (Donnelly 67), Soares, Davies, Grant, Hylton (Morgan 46), Hudson. Not used: Straker, Elvins.
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