STALEMATE MEANS IT’S OVER FOR SPITFIRES
Both Aldershot Town and York City will almost certainly play their football in the National League next season after sharing the spoils at the LNER Community Stadium.
Aldershot are mathematically safe after Torquay United slipped to a late equaliser at Altrincham, whilst York are all but secure with the Gulls needing to beat Wrexham with a large goal swing next Saturday in order to leapfrog them.
Tyler Frost’s stoppage-time equaliser earned Aldershot the vital point they needed, while maintaining manager Tommy Widdrington’s unbeaten start of the Hampshire club.
“The message from the off was we didn’t want to rely on anybody else,” Widdrington said. “These lads were in a low place when I first walked in the door, they weren’t on a great run of form. But with five games we’ve picked up points in every one of those games, we’ve scored in every one and that’s a recipe for doing okay.
“I’m really delighted that it won’t go down to the pressure of the last game. I’ve played in those games at a higher level than this and it’s a big ask to get it right.”
Aldershot began the game the better with Jack Barham twice denied by a York block.
But it didn’t take long for the visitors to take the lead – Ryan Glover’s inswinging corner finding Portsmouth loanee Haji Mnoga unmarked and he powered the ball past Ryan Whitley.
York struggled to build any momentum in the first half and only managed their first strike on goal in stoppage time as Shaq Forde’s deep cross found Lenell John-Lewis at the back post, but he was only able to head over the bar.
But within 11 minutes of the second half, York were level when Forde was wrestled to the ground by Corey Jordan and John-Lewis stepped up and cooly slammed the ball down the centre of the goal.
The City skipper was quickly involved again, as he was swiped by goalkeeper Luca Ashby-Hammond just 14 minutes later, forcing the referee to award a second penalty. However on this occasion John-Lewis wasn’t as composed, as his penalty rattled the post and was scrambled clear.
Fortunately for York, it only cleared as far as Olly Dyson, who quickly revived the move with a delicate cross into the box and Jordan clumsily headed past his own goalkeeper and into the net.
Dyson came close to adding a third for the Minstermen minutes later but his header rattled the post.
And with both sides resolute with the outcome, Aldershot threw a late spanner in the works as Frost met another cross from Glover and directed the ball past Whitley.
Gary Parsons
Duckworth 6
Fallowfield 6
Dyson 7 McLaughlin 7
Forde 6
Willard 7
McQuoid 6
Mnoga 7
John-Lewis 7
Barham 7
Mafuta 7
Partington 5
Cordner 6
Whitley 6
Ellis 7
Campbell 7
Glover 7
Jordan 5
Ashby-Hammond 5
Crookes 7
Hurst 6
Kenlock 6
EASTLEIGH’S National League promotion play-off prospects, seemingly so bright immediately before Easter, finally petered out with a goal-less draw against Solihull Moors at the Silverlake Stadium.
It was their sixth successive match without a win – a sequence they simply had to break against Solihull to stand any chance of finishing higher than Bromley and Boreham Wood in the quest for the seventh and last play-off slot.
In the lead up to Easter, Eastleigh enjoyed a ninepoint lead over their rivals, but they’ve managed only three points out of a possible 18 – and have fallen short.
“I’m obviously gutted the way the season has ended, but at the same time proud because we’ve been ahead of the curve and punched beyond our weight,” said Spitfires manager Lee Bradbury.
“To be in contention for the play-offs at this late stage is a great credit to all the players.
“It’s more than I expected at the start of the season, but disappointing we’ve fallen away at the end.”
Both Eastleigh and Solihull were significantly weakened by injuries, Spitfires having to play with Dan Whitehall as a lone striker, and the visitors with a makeshift back four and an on-loan goalkeeper in Kieran Roucher, who has hardly played this calendar year.
Eastleigh’s fading play-off prospects took an untimely twist when central defender Christian Maghoma was sent off for a second bookable offence just after the half-hour.
Initially booked for an 11th minute foul on Mark Beck, Maghoma clattered into the same player 20 minutes later and was sent packing by referee Jacob Miles. He was the eighth Eastleigh player to be dismissed this season.
Without a win in five games now, Solihull looked the better side with Tom Whelan and the promising Morgan Owen pulling the strings in centre field.
Both what efforts there were from either side sailed off target, the closest Eastleigh coming to breaking the deadlock when Whitehall charged down a clearance by Roucher and the rebound trickled a yard wide of the near upright.
The game opened out as it progressed, with Eastleigh throwing everything forward in a desperate bid to secure that elusive win.
But despite their huffing and puffing, they barely got a shot on target, with Whitehall, JJ McKiernan and the impressive George Langston guilty of bad misses.
Defending stoutly, Solihull might well have snatched a win in the closing stages, Justin Donoawa missing the mark twice in quick succession and Eastleigh goalkeeper Joe McDonnell making a superb point-blank save to deny substitute Kian Riley a dramatic stoppage-time winner.