Red card turns the game on its head for Shots
WIDDRINGTON’S MEN CRASH TO DEFEAT AFTER TAKING LEAD AGAINST SHRIMPERS
A RED card for Rollin Menayese 49 minutes into Saturday’s game at Southend United turned the National League fixture on its head, with ten-man Aldershot Town losing 4-1 in Essex.
The Shots had been leading the game 1-0 thanks to Josh Stokes’ 18th minute goal when Menayese was dismissed, with the Shrimpers scoring four times in the remaining 40 minutes.
Southend started the game well and in the opening 15 minutes, had the higher share of possession and created the only chances.
Danny Waldron flicked on a deep cross and saw his header saved down low by Jordi van Stappershoef, before Noor Husin saw an effort from outside the box also saved.
Aldershot’s first chance of the game came in the 17th minute as Lorent Tolaj cut in from the right after his teammates won the ball back very well in midfield to start a counter attack.
And another well co-ordinated phase of pressing saw Aldershot take the lead just a couple minutes later.
Tyler Frost centred the ball for Tolaj to see an effort blocked, before Stokes tucked it into the bottom corner on the rebound.
It took a while for the next chance to come around but it came the way of the Shots just after the half hour through Tolaj and Stokes.
The Swiss striker rattled the crossbar with a fierce effort with the rebound again falling to Stokes who miscued his connection and the ball
went wide.
Waldron was looking dangerous in the air in the few chances that the hosts could create andforced van Stappershoef into another low save in the 34th minute.
Aldershot took a narrow lead into the break, though.
Tolaj and James Daly forced Southend keeper Collin Andeng Ndi into two stops just before half-time but couldn’t add to their advantage.
The opening five minutes of the second half did not go in the favour of the Shots. Firstly, a Tolaj shot was blocked by a Southend defender despite big appeals for a handball and not long after, Stokes was tripped racing towards goal with nothing given.
Then within a minute of each other, Aldershot found themselves down to ten-men and back on level terms.
Waldron was brought down outside the area by Menayese and despite the Shots defenders racing back to cover Waldron’s route to goal, the foul was deemed to have denied a goal-scoring opportunity and Menayese received a straight red card. From the resulting freekick, Jack Bridge’s low effort was not gathered by van Stappershoef and Harry Cardwell was the quickest to react, to score from close-range.
Just five minutes later, Southend found themselves in front. James Morton’s cross from the left found Ollie Kensdale in space at the far post for an easy finish.
Van Stappershoef reacted well, however, and in the 75th minute, made two important saves.
Firstly rushing out to bravely dive at the feet of Waldron after a dangerous through ball into the Shots box, and then from the resulting corner, he got down to his left very quickly to deny Nathan Ralph.
The Shots failed to let their numerical disadvantage deter their efforts. Though things had become more difficult and Southend looked far more likely to score the next goal, Tolaj came very close with a looping header in the 83rd minute.
But with nine minutes added on, the Shots weren't able to press on and find an equaliser and instead fell further behind. Jack Wood beat a couple of Shots defenders and finished calmly to make it 3-1 in the 93rd minute.
And Marcus Dackers made the scoreline a fair bit harsher than Aldershot deserved in the 96th minute as his powerful effort hit the underside of the bar and the back of the net.