Aldershot Town manager Barry Smith has warned other clubs that his side will continue to improve after their 0-0 draw with Cheltenham at the World of Smile Stadium on Tuesday night. Both sides played entertaining football and created several chances in a game which doesn’t conform to the typical stereotype of a 0-0 draw. Speaking to theshots.co.uk, Smith praised his team for how they handled the early pressure and said that his side will only benefit from that.
He said: “Cheltenham were a very good team and to weather that storm and to work as hard as they did to prevent them from scoring will hold us in good stead. We’re not the finished article and there’s a lot of stuff to come from us and we will get better. This team they work hard for the shirt, they’ll give everything they’ve got and that’s how you get results.”
Despite Cheltenham hitting the woodwork, and having a goal ruled out for offside on two occasions, Smith believed that the game was fairly even and was happy with the result. He said: “I thought it was a fantastic game of football. It was end-to-end, we’ve rode our luck a few times, but when it comes to it we’ve good chances as well. Both times tried to play attacking football. Gary [Johnson]’s side played some good football, but we also played good football. Cheltenham is a difficult place to come, they’ve just come down a division. We obviously want to come and win games but it’s a good point here at Cheltenham.”
After defensive mistakes cost his side in their 2-1 defeat at home to Gateshead on the opening day, Smith was pleased to see improvement in that area and highlighted one particular new signing as a threat going forward. “We definitely defended crossed balls a lot better tonight. We defended as a team very well, we got into good areas. The opposition’s always going to get chances but we also had chances through good play and hard work. Rhys Browne had a couple of good chances and on another day he scores,” he said.
The Shots manager, who took charge of his first competitive away fixture, held special praise for the 280 supporters who made the trip to Gloucestershire. He said “The fans backed us throughout the 90 minutes which was brilliant and I think they were rewarded with a point at the end. They will look back and say it’s a great game, a great spirited performance from our players and they worked ever so hard and showed the fitness levels that they’ve got.”
Looking ahead to Aldershot’s next game away at Wrexham, Smith stressed that his side wont get carried away with picking up their first points of the season. He said: “There’s a fine line between confidence and arrogance and we don’t want to go over that line. We’ll take the confidence and the positive aspects of the game today but we must do the exact same thing; [maintain our] concentration levels for 90 minutes and make sure we work as hard as what we did tonight and we wont be far away.”