Tamworth v Aldershot Town: FA Trophy Quarter Final
Saturday 23rd February 2008 - 3pm
The Lamb Ground, Tamworth

Aldershot Town reacquaint themselves with a familiar, if slightly foreboding old haunt on Saturday in the second of their trio of Cup Quarter Finals.

Now just two rounds from an FA Trophy Final at Wembley, The Shots should approach this latest visit to The Lamb will more confidence than their previous two, which produced miserable defeats in March 2007 and April 2006.

And following Tuesday’s Hampshire Senior Cup exit at Basingstoke, Gary Waddock will surely field a much stronger team against in-form Blue Square North opposition. Despite languishing in 15th place in the table, Tamworth have lost only one of their last eight games and won their last four at home.

That single defeat, though, was a spectacular 5-0 thrashing at Workington, with all the goals coming in the first half. But since then, former Birmingham City striker Nick Wright has taken to winning games on his own, becoming just the fifth player to score consecutive hat-tricks for the club.

Surprisingly, Wright had not been a regular in the side until his recent exploits, but with pace, movement and a poacher’s eye for goal, will need to be watched closely by a Shots defence who looked impressively solid against Stevenage last weekend.

Manager Gary Mills, a former Nottingham Forest player who won the European Cup under Brian Clough, brought in several key players during the January transfer window, including Leicester City’s Polish goalkeeper Alex Cisak; experienced midfielder Martin Foster from Rushden; powerful striker Colin Marrison; and Wrexham striker Jamie Reed, who has just extended his loan spell for a second month.

After beating struggling neighbours Stafford Rangers in a replay in the last round – with a first half Mills described as “the best 45 minutes of football I’ve seen this season” – he told the BBC Sport website about the dubious pleasure of scouting his side’s next FA Trophy opponents from the comfort of his armchair: “It will be a tough game as they are doing very well. I watched them last Sunday and I wish I hadn't! But no two games are the same. If we play how we can play and how we have done over the last eight games, apart from one (that 5-0 at Workington), we have got a chance.”

Tamworth have a better defensive record than fifth-placed Hyde United, conceding just 40 goals in 28 games with a back four led by another former Forest player, Des Lyttle, complemented by 19 year-old Dominic Langdon and former Macclesfield centre-half Michael Briscoe.

It is up front, however, where they have struggled, and will be relying on Wright to extend his fantastic feat and for midfielder Dave Bampton to time his runs from midfield to perfection and display his aerial prowess. In the absence of the cup-tied Foster, Chris Nurse is likely to deputise in central midfield. Ironically, Nurse made the only appearance in a less-than-glorious career with The Shots against Tamworth, in 2005.

South Africa-born, Australian Under-20 international winger Jonti Richter has found a home-from-home at The Lamb, alongside native Brummie Gareth Sheldon, well-known to Shots fans after spells at Kidderminster and Hereford.

Gary Waddock should have an almost full strength squad to choose from, with Anthony Charles’ return from suspension and the continued rehabilitation after injury of Louie Soares and Ryan Scott.

Shots from: Bull, Jaimez-Ruiz, Smith, Straker, Newman, Day, Charles, Soares, Chalmers, John Grant, Elvins, Hylton, Hudson, Winfield, Harding, Gier, Milletti, Huggins, Joel Grant, Simmonds and Koo-Boothe.

Tamworth from: Hinchcliffe, Smith, Robinson, Nurse, Waldrum, McAughtrie, Bampton, Clarke, Lyttle, Langdon, Sheldon, Sheridan, Veiga, Edwards, Williams, Briscoe, Touhy, Wright, Bains, Ebdon, Leary, Bond and Belford.

League Table(s):

How The Reached This Round :
Tamworth’s road to the FA Trophy Quarter Final has been a difficult one and at last their players and supporters alike will be relishing the chance to play a home tie in the competition.

The Lambs began their campaign at Third Qualifying Round stage where they were drawn away against Stalybridge Celtic. A 2-0 victory saw them enter the hat for the First Round where, for the second time, they found themselves drawn away – this time against Hucknell. A narrow 1-0 victory meant that their name was placed in the draw for the Second Round, where yet again, the Staffordshire outfit were faced with an away tie, this time in the form of Blyth Spartans. Another narrow 1-0 victory saw them make Round Three, where an away trip against Blue Square Premier strugglers Stafford Rangers ended with a 2-2 draw and finally they got their chance to stage a home tie. The replay was promptly won 2-1 and another home tie in the Quarter Final was their prize.

Other Quarter Final News:
The winners of the tie will pick up £8000 in prize money. If the match is drawn, no extra time will be played, the replay will be at the Recreation Ground on Tuesday 26th February 2008, kick off 7.45pm.
It is believed that the draw for the two-legged Semi Final will be made on Monday 25th – with the first leg being played on 8th March followed by the second leg on 15th March.

Other Quarter Final ties: Burton Albion vs Ebbsfleet United; Rushden & Diamonds vs York City and Torquay United vs Crawley Town.

Top Scorers:
Shots: John Grant - 21
Tamworth: Wright - 13

Shot Through:
There are two players who have connections with both clubs, one in each side. In the Tamworth line up is midfielder Chris Nurse. Chris made just one appearance for The Shots which was against Tamworth, while The Shots have Louie Soares who played seven times on loan in a Lambs shirt back in 2005. He scored once and picked up two yellow cards.

Form Guide (last six games played):

Sequence Statistics:
Shots: Lost last game. Won last two away games.
Tamworth: Won last four home games. Won last two games.

Head To Head:
There have been ten fixtures between the two sides since the 2003/04 season and honours are even.

Both sides have won a total of three times (30% of games each) while the other four have been drawn (40% of games). In those games, The Shots have scored a total of seventeen goals (an average of 1.7 goals per game) while Tamworth have scored eighteen times (an average of 1.8 goals per game).

At the Lamb Ground there have been five games with both sides have winning twice (40% of games each) and the other was drawn (20% of games). Both sides have scored eight times (an average of 1.6 goals per game).

Tamworth’s record win against The Shots was 2-0, which they have managed twice. Once at the Recreation Ground on Saturday 13th August 2005 and again, at the Lamb on Tuesday 6th March 2007.

The Shots record win against Tamworth was a 4-3 victory at the Recreation Ground on Saturday 8th January 2005.

Last Time We Met:
The last time the two sides met was at the Lamb on Tuesday 6th March 2007 when Tamworth recorded a 2-0 victory with goals from Taylor just before half time and Edwards at the final whistle.

Shots Team: Nikki Bull, Dean Smith, Darren Barnard (Mark Pritchard), Rhys Day, Anthony Charles, Karl Beckford (Ryan Scott), Mark Molesley, Ricky Newman (Kirk Hudson), Ryan Williams, John Grant, Jonny Dixon.

Subs un-used: Louis Wells, Dave Winfield.

Radio/TV coverage:
BBC SCR will have full match commentary from The Lamb via their internet coverage, with Gavin Denison and Shotsweb's Steve Gibbs. Subscribers to theshots online will receive their regular match news and updates via the SMS service. You can also join in with the match banter in the Phoenix Chat Room here.

Directions:
The stadium postcode is: B77 1AA. Copy and paste it into the AA route finder here for directions.

Parking:
There is car parking next to the stadium on a strictly first come first served basis and the popular Snow Dome has a large car park and is only across the road.

Official Shots Supporters Travel:
The Supporters Club are running their usual luxury coach to the Lamb, at a cost of £20 per person. The coach will be departing from the Recreation Ground at 10am. Bookings can be made by visiting or phoning the club offices (telephone 01252 320211) or for future reference, by visiting the Supporters club table at the front of the ground on matchdays.

Supporters using the coach are reminded that they can park their own vehicles behind the East Bank.

Full rules and terms for the coach travel can be found here.

Nearest Train Station:
Tamworth. Directions can be found on the official Tamworth website here.

Click here for train timetable.

Bus:
There is no information available with regards to buses.

How Much?
Adults - £13 seated £10 terrace. Consessions - £9 seated, £6 terrace.

Allocation:
The capacity of the Lamb Ground is 4065. There are no details available regarding aways supporters allocation however it is believed that just 30 seats from the available 518 are available to Shots supporters. It is believed that these are sold out. The match is not all ticket, pay at the turnstiles on the day.

Pubs:
Click here for further details.

Betting:
Tamworth win – 7/2
Draw – 12/5
Shots win – 4/6

Odds from Blue Square here.

Shotsweb prediction:
Rather surprisingly, some areas of The Shots support still regard the FA Trophy as an “unimportant” sideline. True, if perhaps league success was guaranteed – however Tuesday evenings Hampshire Senior Cup exit at the same stage, demonstrates how quickly a club can go from being involved to having nothing – a stark reminder how quickly things can change. Tamworth may be struggling to find consistency – but like Basingstoke, will have the ability to cause an upset if Gary Waddock’s men are not on top of their game and it will be up to the players to show that the first half Stevenage performance was no flash in the pan. Shots win.

Opposition websites:
Official Tamworth website here.

Messageboard here.