Aldershot & Farnham made hard work of defeating bottom side Gillingham to record back-to-back wins for the first time this season and move out of the bottom two.

A&F exerted pressure from the get-go not allowing Gillingham any escape routes and launching continued assaults on the Gillingham goal.
A mix of poor composure in the ‘D, misfortune and not quite enough care in the final third meant that within fifteen minutes it had already looked like it could be an infuriating afternoon for A&F.

However, some of their frustrations were relieved when a one-two between Jonny Groves and Ian Metcalfe saw the former collect the ball top centre of circle and strike nicely into the bottom left corner.

A&F were getting so much space, Phil Rushmere was able to advance forward from sweeper and pick passes into the forward line with ease and really A&F should have been out of sight at the break.

Into the second half a similar pattern continued with A&F unable to capitalise on multiple chances and this seemed to give the home side belief. On a break they managed to get the ball to the far post for a simple tap in to level things up.

The A&F defence were having to work much harder now. Nathan Stanley was a strong presence in the centre of defence making several strong tackles. Ben Blandford made a couple of key challenges and Mark Edgley in goal was called upon several times to block strikes.

A&F were still able to advance down the pitch with little difficulty and with a ball finding Max Long right of the circle he fired in from a tight angle to restore the lead.

The number of unsuccessful short corners A&F had reached fourteen when they switched it to go short with Groves then finishing at the far post.

A 3-1 lead looked to have the game sewan up but a late short corner goal by Gillingham saw for a tense final two minutes.

A&F were happy to take the points, but the game should have been decided by a much more convincing margin.