Coca-Cola League Two

Morecambe 2 Aldershot Town 0

If once is happenstance and two coincidence, then what on earth is seven?

Unfortunately, it is entirely predictable, that’s what, as Aldershot slumped to a seventh successive League Two defeat on their travels.

This latest loss, against an ordinary Morecambe side, was an all-too-familiar tale.

Missed chances, poor defending and a loss of shape and belief at the crucial moments meant that Aldershot lost a game they might easily have won — or at least drawn, which, given the run of defeats, would have been a very welcome point.

John Grant’s late first half penalty, saved by Barry Roche, was the most glaring missed opportunity. Had he scored, Aldershot would have had the lead that their late first half dominance merited.

But while it was a key moment it did not lose the match for The Shots. Gary Waddock’s men were still level at 0-0, after all, and Morecambe had offered very little. The penalty miss was a big setback, given Aldershot’s fragile confidence on the road, but there was still plenty of time to take something from the game.

So, this latest defeat was more down to a poor second half performance, when Aldershot allowed Morecambe to take an undeserved lead and then lost their way in trying to rectify their mistake.

Just as at Macclesfield three weeks before, Aldershot had played a good if unremarkable first half, drawing the sting out of their hosts and gradually dictating the game.

They should be going on to win or draw matches from there but Aldershot appear incapable, without the home comforts of The Recreation Ground, to grasp a game by the scruff of the neck for the full 90 minutes.

Yes, there was definitely an element of misfortune, especially when Ben Harding’s superb effort hit the underside of the bar from distance at 1-0.

But while Morecambe ‘keeper Barry Roche was voted man-of-the-match, seven straight defeats, which contrast with seven games unbeaten at home, is too poor a sequence to be put down to bad luck.

Of course life was always going to be far harder in League Two than it was in the Conference but, at home, Aldershot have shown that they can live with the best the division has to offer. The Shots, who remain in mid-table, are not out of their depth in League Two.

Thanks to that home form,  this is not a crisis, but the two sets of results are so polar that the only conclusion to be drawn is that part of the away problem is a mental block that the players cannot hurdle.

That they are being punished for almost every mistake they make hardly helps, but The Shots would still have got something from the game at 1-0 down (there was more than 30 minutes to go) had they kept their shape and their belief.

Confidence and belief do, however, come from winning and that is why this away run is turning into a vicious circle. Last season Aldershot rode their luck away from home and won a number of games by narrow margins because the squad believed they could win every game.

This season they are losing those matches because, when they are put to the test, they lose both ability and belief at the critical moments.

“We would have got away with making a few mistakes last year,” said Waddock. “But now we’re being punished. We’ve missed a penalty and conceded two sloppy goals. We have to be more clinical and we have to defend better. It’s a case of same old, same old away from home."

After weathering a strong start from Morecambe, The Shots bossed the later stages of the first half. Nikki Bull had had to make a smart save with his feet from an early tackle on Wayne Curtis by Anthony Straker, who had come in for the suspended Anthony Charles, in the only change from the win over Port Vale.

Bull then made an even better save from the outstanding Lewis McGivern, who is on loan from Manchester City.

But after that opening quarter, Aldershot had the better of a poor half. Danny Hylton began to expose Morecambe’s rugged, sluggish defence with clever movement and skill and forced the first of a series of excellent saves from Roche in the 18th minute.

Hylton, Kirk Hudson and Scott Davies were working especially well together but on too many occasions The Shots were guilty of over elaborating in the area. Still, Hudson forced a superb low save from Roche ten minutes before the break and, five minutes later, Morecambe finally folded under Aldershot’s concerted pressure.

Osborne fed Hylton in the area and his twist was too quick for James Bentley and the referee had an easy decision to award a penalty.

Grant grabbed the ball immediately, so clearly he had been awarded penalty duties in the wake of Davies’ spot-kick miss ten days before at Chesterfield.

But while Grant has shown encouraging form of late, he still has an acute lack of goals  — just one all season — and his penalty record over the last six months is poor.

Given that Roche has saved more than half a dozen penalties already this season (including shoot-outs) there was an inevitably when he dived to his left to palm away Grant’s placed, tentative, penalty.

Aldershot began the second half as they ended the first, with Soares forcing another save from Roche and Straker having a shot deflected wide.

But then Aldershot switched off. McGivern was given too much room down the left and both Osborne and Rhys Day failed to cut out his cross. Stewart Drummond, unmarked, turned the ball home.

Waddock immediately brought on Marvin Morgan for Soares. While Morgan did quite well, that move pushed Hylton out wide and he was never again as effective.

That said, The Shots were still the dominant force going forward and Roche made a superb save from Grant’s far post effort, from Morgan’s cross. If Aldershot’s luck is out right now, Grant’s appears to have gone off on a long sabbatical.

When Roche was finally beaten, Harding’s 25-yard shot crashed down off the underside of the bar.

Two minutes later, the game was over. Aldershot committed men forward in search of the equaliser and Davies lost possession after taking far too many touches in his own half.

That left the defence completely exposed and allowed Curtis to sweep goalwards, with no Aldershot defender in sight. While Bull made an excellent save, the alert McGivern had piled forward too and he picked up the rebound and threaded the ball into the empty net.

Davies is clearly a talented player but, especially away from home, he does not give Harding the necessary protection in the middle that either Lewis Chalmers or Ricky Newman — or both — would provide.

Aldershot were too open in the second half and it is something that Waddock must address, if this away run is to end any time soon.

But for another Bull save, Craig Stanley would have made it 3-0, before Grant, who at least had kept going after his penalty setback, fizzed a low shot into the side-netting, on 75 minutes.

But, after that, Morecambe closed out the game with ease; Aldershot accepted their fate all too meakly.

Aldershot Town: Bull, Osborne, Straker, Day, Blackburn, Harding, Soares (Morgan 60), Davies, Grant, Hylton, Hudson (Donnelly 71). Not used: Newman, Chalmers, Elvins.

For more from Gary Waddock, see Tuesday's Aldershot Mail.