Preview: Aldershot Town v Wycombe Wanderers

Wycombe Wanderers travel to Aldershot Town on Saturday for their 7th league game of the season.


The table currently shows Wycombe in 12th place with 7 points, while Aldershot occupy 13th spot with the same number of points but a slightly inferior goal difference.

Aldershot Home Record.........Won 1...Drawn 2...Lost 0

Wycombe Away Record.........Won 0...Drawn 3...Lost 0


Following manager Gary Waddock's criticism of his players' failure to compete against Macclesfield last Saturday, the Chairboys have a perfect opportunity to make amends against an Aldershot side who will be fired-up for what is likely to be a highly-charged encounter between the two clubs.

The rumblings of discontent from Aldershot began last season when Waddock and his assistant Martin Kuhl quit the Recreation Ground to take over at Adams Park. A popular pair who had masterminded the Hampshire club's return to the Football League, their departure just twelve games into the new campaign hurt the Shots' fans - who couldn't grasp the attraction of a move to Wycombe.

Waddock then attempted to sign Scott Donnelly and Marvin Morgan from his former club in the January transfer window - a move that reportedly angered Shots' new manager Kevin Dillon who described the Blues' offer as 'derisory.'

This Summer, Waddock succeeeded in recruiting Dave Winfield and Andy Sandell from the Shots after their contracts expired and they spurned offers to remain at the Rec. Winfield's fee of £25,000 was eventually decided by a tribunal after an unhappy Dillon was reported as saying: 'Wycombe offered us a pathetic amount.'

Add to that, the fact that former Shots' favourites Nikki Bull and Scott Davies now play for Wycombe and return to the Rec for the first time on Saturday - and you have all the ingredients necessary for an atmospheric clash.

What sort of reception the home fans give their former heroes remains to be seen - but the Wycombe contingent are likely to offer a generous round of applause to Shots' keeper Jamie Young who was a popular figure at Adams Park for over three years before parting company with the club nine months ago.

On the pitch, the two sides have an almost identical record so far this season. Both lost a league game for the first time last Saturday - and both had managed only one win and four draws in their previous five matches.

While Aldershot can take consolation from the fact that their 1-0 setback at high-flying Port Vale last week was hardly a surprise, Wycombe are unable to say the same about their unimpressive defeat at home to perennial strugglers Macclesfield Town.

Prolific scorers in pre-season, Wycombe's slick one-touch passing and purposeful attacking play seems to have been replaced by a hesitant and predictable build-up which is failing to trouble the opposition and has resulted in the Chairboys scoring only two goals from open-play in their six league games so far.

Acknowledging his side's disappointing start to the campaign, Waddock has pointed to the number of players he recruited in the summer and the fact that they need time to gel - and while that's undoubtedly true - it could equally apply to many of the other teams in League Two.

From the fans' point of view, expectations were high and it's been a less than impressive start. The Chairboys have failed to live up to their pre-season billing as 'the entertainers' - and are in fact rock-bottom of the shooting charts. They haven't created enough chances and the few they have fashioned - they've usually failed to convert. The absence of Jon-Paul Pittman and the sale of Matt Phillips to Blackpool has left them disappointingly short of pace, but the biggest indictment of all is that the players haven't shown the battling qualities necessary to escape from this division.

It took the imminent spectre of relegation to wake Wycombe up at the end of last season, let's hope their recent plummet from bookies' favourites to mid-table mediocrity is enough to give them a kick up the backside ahead of Saturday's game against an Aldershot side that Dillon has made very difficult to break down.



Aldershot's last five games (All Competitions)

LG2: Shrewsbury (A).......Drew 1-1

LG2: Stevenage (H).........Drew 1-1

JPT: Oxford (H)................Won 2-0

LG2: Northampton (H)......Drew 1-1

LG2: Port Vale (A).............Lost 0-1



Wycombe's last five games (All Competitions)

LG2: Stockport (A).........Drew 0-0

LG2: Oxford (H).............Drew 0-0

LG2: Northampton (A)....Drew 1-1

LG2: Accrington (A)........Drew 1-1

LG2: Macclesfield (H).......Lost 1-2



Aldershot Goal Stats (8 games in all Competitions)

Goals Scored (Total).........6

Goals Conceded (Total).....7

Goals Scored (Home)........5

Goals Conceded (Home)....5

Clean Sheets....3



Wycombe Goal Stats (7 games in all Competitions)

Goals Scored (Total).........6

Goals Conceded (Total).....6

Goals Scored (Away)........2

Goals Conceded (Away)....2

Clean Sheets....3



Aldershot's Top Goal Scorers - (All Competitions)

Damian Spencer.......2

Marvin Morgan..........1

Anthony Charles.......1

Ben Harding.............1

Danny Hylton...........1



Wycombe's Top Goal Scorers - (All Competitions)

Scott Rendell.............2 (inc 2 pens)

Jon-Paul Pittman........1

Ben Strevens.............1

Andy Sandell.............1

Matt Bloomfield..........1



Aldershot Shooting (Top-3) - All Competitions

Marvin Morgan.......11 on-target...11 off-target...0 against woodwork

Luke Guttridge.........7 on-target....6 off-target...0 against woodwork

Anthony Straker.......6 on-target....4 off-target...0 against woodwork



Wycombe Shooting (Top-3) - All Competitions

Kevin Betsy...........2 on-target...9 off-target...0 against woodwork

Gareth Ainsworth...2 on-target...6 off-target...0 against woodwork

Ben Strevens.........4 on-target...1 off-target...1 against woodwork



Shooting (Club) - All Competitions

Aldershot.......36 on target...31 off target...0 against w'work (Rank-15)

Wycombe.......19 on target...30 off target...3 against w'work (Rank-24)



League Form Guide

All Season

Aldershot......Pld: 6...W: 1...D: 4...L: 1...Pts: 7...Pts per game: 1.16

Wycombe......Pld: 6...W: 1...D: 4...L: 1...Pts: 7...Pts per game: 1.16



Last Five league Games

Aldershot.........WDDDL - 6 points

Wycombe.........DDDDL - 4 points



Previous Meetings

In 3 previous meetings there have been 2 wins for Wycombe and 1 for Aldershot.

2004/05 FLT: Aldershot 0 Wycombe 1

2008/09 LG2: Aldershot 3 Wycombe 2

2008/09 LG2: Wycombe 3 Aldershot 0



The Man In The Middle

Saturday's referee is Darren Sheldrake from Surrey who was promoted to the National List of Referees in 2009. His most recent Wycombe game was last season's 2-0 home win over Hartlepool. During the current campaign he's issued 12 yellow cards and 1 red card in 3 games.



On this day in history - 18th September

Aldershot Town.....Played 3 - Won 3 - Drawn 0 - Lost 0

Wycombe.............Played 5 - Won 0 - Drawn 0 - Lost 5



Prediction

Aldershot 1 Wycombe Wanderers 1

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