Gary Waddock hinted that his Aldershot Town side have rode their luck in recent games and were heavily punished in their 4-0 defeat to Forest Green Rovers at the EBB Stadium on Tuesday.
Fabien Robert and Kieffer Moore both scored twice as the Shots’ unbeaten home record came to an abrupt end against the side with the best away record in the National League.
Reflecting on the defeat, Waddock admitted that Aldershot were not up to their usual standards, and it was a game that his side will quickly forget.
He told Radio Woking Sport: “We were heavily punished. You have to stop crosses coming into the box and you have to mark in the danger areas, but tonight we didn’t do that.”
“In other games that we’ve played recently, that’s happened but we haven’t been punished. Against better opposition and better players, you get punished and that’s what happened tonight.”
Photo by Ian Morsman – A full set can be viewed at theshots.co.uk
Aldershot got off to nightmare start, as goals from Robert and Moore put the visitors 2-0 up in the opening eight minutes, before Shots defender Will Evans was sent off moments later.
Waddock admitted that his side were not up to their usual standards that has seen his side go on an eight-game unbeaten run, but heaped praise on the visitors, who went top with the win.
“We didn’t start how we normally start games so that obviously tells us that the start to games is very important, not only here but away from home,
“It doesn’t matter what formation you play or whether you’re down to ten mea, but in all fairness Forest Green are an excellent side so it was always tough.”
“We were punished early on and gave ourselves a mountain to climb. Then we went down to ten men and it made it even more difficult for us,” he said.
The Aldershot manager was baffled with the first half performance, but praised his side for their professionalism in the second period of the tie.
Photo by Ian Morsman – A full can be viewed at theshots.co.uk
He told Radio Woking: “Tonight we don’t have why the reason behind it, you can say whatever you like, it’s a blip because we’ve been on a decent run and the players have done extremely well.”
“It was damage limitation at that stage, we just needed to sure it up and we didn’t want the score-line to be any heavier.”
Despite the result, which sees the Shots slip to seventh in the National League, a point off the play-offs, Waddock remained upbeat and praised the support, as over 2,000 fans turned up at the EBB.
He said: “The fans have been brilliant, they saw how difficult it was for us and they stuck with the players which was a credit to them.”
“It was one game, it was three points, we didn’t go crazy when we were on our run and we’re not down in the dumps because of tonight’s result.
“We conceded four, we’ve been magnificent in terms of clean sheets, we’ve lost three points, we haven’t lost any more than that unless they’ve changed the rules.”
Aldershot return to league action on Saturday when they host Solihull Moors, who thrashed Southport 4-0 yesterday evening.