Opposition Overview: Aldershot Town
Chris Millington’s Solihull Moors side welcome an Aldershot Town side who are led by the current Head Coach, Scott Davies, in this Enterprise National League game on the afternoon of Saturday 12th September. Millington’s Moors will be looking to get all three points against The Shots.
The most recent competitive game for Aldershot saw them come face to face with FC Halifax Town, also at home, where they would go on to win the game thanks to a winning goal from Marcus Wyllie with just ten minutes of the ninety to go. This sees them now sat up in 9th place in England’s fifth tier at present.
Aldershot Town are, of course, a phoenix club. The original club was founded as Aldershot Football Club back in 1926, and they would go on to play in the English Football League for 60 years from 1932 to 1992, which was when they were dissolved. The club ceased to exist due to financial debts that saw them resign from the Football League.
Aldershot Town Football Club were then founded to take the place of the old club back on 22nd April 1992, with their first ever manager being former centre back Steve Wignall, who played for the club for 5 years between 1986 and 1991 at the end of his 19 year playing career.
The club began life in the Isthmian League Division Three for the 1992/93 season, with their home games still being played at The Recreation Ground, as they are to this day. They won their first game there against Clapton, beating them 4 – 2 in front of a crowd of 1,493, more than the crowd that had attended the former club’s final home game at this same stadium.
They won their first ten games in a row, and only lost one game all season, winning the league title by an incredible 18 points in the end. Their only loss was in an away game against the aforementioned Clapton, with Mark Butler and Steve Stairs scoring a combined total of 62 goals between them during that league campaign.
Their first home defeat actually didn’t come until after 20 months, 35 games in total, when they were only defeated by Banstead Athletic in April 1994. At the end of that 1993/94 season, they had been promoted again, whilst also making it to the FA Vase Quarter Finals.
Boss Wignall left for Colchester United a few months before that, in January 1994, and was replaced by Steve Wigley, formerly a winger for Nottingham Forest.
We now fast forward to the 2002/03 season, during which they had a very successful campaign under the temporary charge of Stuart Cash. They claimed the title to get themselves a historic promotion to the Football Conference whilst also lifting further silverware in the form of the Hampshire Senior Cup, after they were able to get the better of Bashley.
In their first season back at the fifth tier of the English Football Pyramid, they were able to remain in the play-off positions for much of the campaign, meaning that they were once again in contention for promotion. However, they were to go on to lose on penalty kicks following a 1 – 1 draw with Shrewsbury Town at the home of Stoke City, then known as the Britannia Stadium. The club went full time the following season.
The 2004/05 season saw more play-off disappointment. It was not until the 2007/08 season that the club were able to finally celebrate a promotion back into the English Football League following a season that saw them win no less than 31 league games, whilst also earning a league record of 101 points to pair with their record number of victories in the division that season. This was done under the stewardship of then manager Gary Waddock.
In the 2008/09 season, they achieved a very respectable 6th place finish, which improved on the 13th place finish in their first season back at this level. They did play Manchester United at home in an eye-catching FA Cup tie during the 2011/12 season, though they did lose 3 – 0 to Sir Alex Ferguson’s side.
However, they were soon to return to the National League, getting relegated under the management of Andy Scott, who had been appointed late in the season following the resignation of former boss Dean Holdsworth.
Soon after the club returned to the fifth tier, they suffered financial difficulties and were entered into administration with a reported debt of as much as £1.4 million. A consortium, led by the former Chairman Shahid Azeem, then eventually took ownership of the club on August 1st 2013.
They would begin the 2013/14 National League season with a points deduction of ten points in total. Incredibly, The Shots had wiped out this points deficit by the first week of September following a draw and three wins in their first seven games to open the season. They were still plunged into a relegation battle that saw them secure safety thanks to a 2 – 1 win on Easter Monday against their local rivals Woking in what was the penultimate game of the campaign.
This win against Woking was part of a run of four wins out of their last seven games of that particular season. By 31st August 2014, it had been announced that the club had paid off all of its debts, an incredible two years ahead of schedule.
Fast forward to the 2016/17 season, when they came close to promotion back to the English Football League once more. This was following an amazing run of just one loss in their final 21 league games of the season under the stewardship of boss Barry Smith. Unfortunately for The Shots, they were to go on and suffer a heavy 5 – 2 aggregate loss over two legs against Tranmere Rovers in the semi-finals.
They did, though, have the meanest defence after only conceding 37 goals all season, also having the most clean sheets with as many as 22. The joint top goalscorers that season were Bernard Mensah and Scott Rendall, both with 13 goals each in all competitions.
Aldershot came dangerously close to relegation to the sixth tier for the first time in 16 years during the 2017/18 campaign, finishing in the relegation zone. However, they were spared relegation after Gateshead’s demotion due to financial irregularities.
We now move on to the recent 2023/24 campaign, where, following the promotion of Wrexham to League Two, Aldershot Town Football Club then became the longest-serving club at the fifth level of the English Football Pyramid, with 11 seasons there in total at that point.
An 8th place finish with 69 points was achieved, followed by a total of 57 points in the following campaign, finishing down in 16th place in 2024/25.
Last season, in the 2025/26 campaign, they were able to accumulate a grand total of 46 points that saw them finish narrowly above the relegation zone in 20th place in the end. As of the time of writing, they sit as high as 9th place in the National League, with a total of 11 points from their first 6 games, and they will hope to have a much more positive season by the end of the ongoing 2026/27 Enterprise National League campaign.
In the opposition dugout – Scott Davies
Current Aldershot Manager Scott Davies has been in charge ever since his appointment by The Shots ahead of the current campaign back on 27th April 2026, with this being his first full season in charge of the club in the hot seat at the Recreation Ground.
He previously had a successful spell in charge of Slough between 2022 and 2026, which was the 38 year old’s first ever job in senior club management.
Davies also had an extensive playing career ahead of his new career in coaching and football management. Only retiring in following his departure as player-manager of Slough back in April 2026, his playing career spanned no less than 20 years, where he had also spent time at the likes of Reading (2006 - 2011), Yeading (Loan, 2006), Aldershot Town (Loan, 2007 – 2008; Loan 2008/09; Loan, 2011 – 2012; 2026), Wycombe Wanderers (Loan, 2009 – 2010; 2010), Yeovil Town (Loan, 2010), Bristol Rovers (Loan, 2011), Crawley Town (2011 - 2012), Oxford United (2013 - 2014), Dunstable Town (2014 - 2015), Wealdstone (2015 - 2016), Oxford City (2016 - 2017), Chelmsford City (2017 - 2018), Slough Town (2018 – 2019; 2019 - 2026), Kingstonian (2019), Harlow Town (2019), Biggleswade Town (Loan, 2020), Staines Town (Loan, 2020), Beaconsfield Town (2021), and also Risborough Rangers (2022).
Key Player – Tristan Abrahams
Aldershot Town forward Tristan Abrahams is currently their standout player, and he is their top scorer so far this season, scoring 5 so far in the 2026/27 Enterprise National League season after 6 matches so far. Abrahams spent part of last season on loan at Chelmsford City.
Abrahams has so far had a playing career spanning ten years as of September 2026. Ahead of his permanent move to Aldershot in June 2025, he had represented the likes of Leyton Orient (2016 – 2017; Loan, 2017; Loan, 2021), Cambridge City (Loan, 2016 - 2017), Norwich City (2017 - 2019), Exeter City (Loan, 2018 - 2019), Yeovil Town (Loan, 2019), Newport County (2019 - 2021), Carlisle United (2021 - 2022), Grimsby Town (Loan, 2022), Eastleigh (2022 – 2023), Gillingham (Loan, 2023), Welling United (2023 - 2024), and Maidenhead United (2024 - 2025).
Opposition Overview written by Adam Holt
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