Sometimes you put your hands and admit you were beaten by the better team. Or should do if you’ve anything about you.

So this match report’s title belongs to the classic Yes song and I reckon even in darkest Somerset there must be a few ciderhead proggers.

YOURS IS NO DISGRACE. To our players and fans, this means that it’s no disgrace to lose to a technically far superior football team and that, as per every game home and away, your vocal support was brilliantly loyal, even after the hour mark when we knew pretty much the game was up.

YOURS IS NO DISGRACE. To visiting YTFC fans who brought ‘officially’ 379 fans and might even have had to sample our catering, well done to each and every one of you. Although I would link this if I could find a YTFC fans forum. The Ciderspace link is dead and the other old forums seem to be dead ends via Google – look at this for example:

Yeovil Town Forum

Anyway, my journey by train was again disrupted by delays and by 7pm at Woking I made the decision to travel by taxi, which was another £35 out of the coffers.

But that in itself was a nice little journey thanks to the hospitality of the driver from Pakistan who enthused with me about cricket (another passion) and we chatted about Shoaib Akhtar, the late great Abdul Qadir and even boxer Naseem Hamed, who I didn’t know had connections to Woking.

And it’s fair to say that when I got to the ground and saw around 50 Yeovil fans singing in the garden of the Crimea, I thought, this is gonna be great, especially if they let them in the East Bank. And fair play to them, tried to outsing us but soon found out that just isn’t possible UNLESS of course you happen to be two goals up and the war is won.

So let’s have it right on two counts before I move on to the game itself. Yeovil, best fans we’ve seen here so far this season plus I am sure you will win this league – never mind “we’re going up with the Woking” – FFS trust me on that one – they’re going nowhere!

Aldershot Town: Walker, Kinsella, Lyons-Foster, Santos (Mullings 69), Shields (Berkeley-Agyepong 64), Panayiotou, Eyoma (Fletcher 69), Fowler, Chislett, Hunt, Powell

Subs not used: Whittingham, Tinkler

Yeovil Town: A Smith, Alcock, Dickinson, Collins, J Smith (Tilley 79), Wilkinson, Worthington (D’Ath 61), Murphy (McCoy 90), Omotayo, Hippolyte, Skendi

Subs not used: Bradbury, Hutton

Match Attendance: 1684 (379 away fans)

Gate 1684? Who writes this stuff? As Yeovil brought close to 400 fans the gate has to be nearer to 1900 – so It’s either a case of why did so many stay away OR if someone’s telling us officially that only 1200 Shots fans were there then it’s complete bollocks, East Bank hasn’t been that full in ages.

My worst fear tonight, of conceding early and them dominating, happened except that for a while until that beautiful second goal, even Yeovil fans might agree that the game at 1-1 was a balanced affair.

As usual, we applied some late pressure but like England in that final Ashes test, turning up after the horse had bolted. At least the lads give a shift most games unlike Saturday’s game when Wrexham fans were accusing their players of not playing for the manager.

And you know, if away fans are gonna bring a few hundred, stick ’em in the East Bank. For me, tonight was like a hark back to the old days where you away fans were put there even if you had thirty. It provides a proper atmosphere and again, to Yeovil I will reiterate, best fans we’ve seen here for a while (though I’m sure a few of us in the wake of defeat may disagree) and the best team too – early doors we lost to Fylde who were tipped for promotion and look what’s happened to them!

Green flares weren’t just in the seventies

Of the goals tonight, I can’t really blame Mitch for any of them- can you? Our defence switched off for the first and second goals and from the East Bank viewpoint, that second goal was like Championship quality. The third reminded me of Barnet’s second goal last Tuesday, with Walker looking on helplessly as the ball sailed over him into the net.

Yeovil took the lead in the 8th minute, courtesy of Myles Hippolyte, when his low drive fired past standstill Aldershot bodies and straight into the back of the net.

Standstill bodies! They certainly looked asleep at times defensively. It’s what I really don’t get with Aldershot. Other teams score goals like tonight against us but we either can’t get into the positions around the box to make clinical passes or runs OR when we do get near the box, all we do is sling hopeful aerial crosses in to… usually no-one.

Sorry to be so harsh but you know as a true ATFC fan I call each game as I see it and credit the opposition where it’s due.

Second half I went and sat in the South Stand where I know just as many folk as in the East Bank and with no pillars you do get a decent view. But what’s your view on this kick it anywhere first mentality? I see this week in, week out and watched (and I’ll use this as a classic example), George Fowler with the ball coming to him in the air and no opposing players around him, just punts it hopefully forwards. And they all do it, you know.

Why can’t our players take the ball down, control it and look around for a pass? Most of the other sides I’ve seen CAN and DO play like that and as you will have seen tonight, not only did Yeovil play lovely football, they had precision, basically had us on toast.

The most frustrating thing is that when we do go down the wings with ball to feet, we can look threatening and impressive at times. It’s almost like they’ve got a plan A and B but that the two kind of collide at times.

It’s just pure basics, get it on the carpet and play. Something Danny Searle should look into and get us playing like a football team again because right now, capable of getting points off teams around or below us in the table, we fall by the wayside against quality opposition.

As usual for a midweek game, I had to leave 15 minutes early to get the 2134 train but on an empty station and with the game still going on, I got this great photo of the ground in the distance from virtually the end of the platform.

Now I hope that many of you will “FOLLOW FOLLOW FOLLOW ” the team up to Derbyshire Saturday where it is quite possible we can record a victory. Personally I’d be more worried about Chorley. And the fact that my next away game will be Dagenham and Redbridge and the fact that after seven attempts I still haven’t seen us win this season… a guy next to me first half in the East Bank was saying he’d seen ALL our wins! Bite his arm off for just one of those I would!

So, “yours is no disgrace – no disgrace or shame tonight losing this one, let’s put it to bed and focus on our next couple of six-pointers. To Yeovil fans, if we are in better shape by the time we visit Huish, I hope we can give you a better game.

My wretched run of watching Shots continues then…

PLAYED – 7

WON – 0

DRAWN – 1

LOST – 6

GS – 4

GC – 13

L 1-2 Sat 3 Aug H 3PM AFC Fylde
L 0-1 Tue 13 Aug H 7:45PM Bromley
D 1-1 Sat 17 Aug H 3PM FC Halifax Town
L 0-2 Sat 24 Aug A 5:20PM Torquay United
L 1-2 Sat 7 Sep H 3PM Barrow
L 0-2 Tue 17 Sep A 7:45PM Barnet
L 1-3 Tue 24 Sep H 7:45PM Yeovil Town

REMAINING FIXTURES

Sat 28 Sep A 3PM Chesterfield
Sat 5 Oct A 3PM Chorley
Tue 8 Oct H 7:45PM Dover Athletic
Sat 12 Oct H 3PM Hartlepool United
Sat 26 Oct A 3PM Harrogate Town
Tue 29 Oct A 7:45PM Boreham Wood
Sat 2 Nov H 3PM Maidenhead United
Sat 16 Nov A 3PM Dagenham & Redbridge
Sat 23 Nov H 3PM Notts County
Tue 26 Nov A 7:45PM Yeovil Town
Sat 30 Nov H 3PM Chesterfield
Sat 7 Dec A 3PM Barrow
Sat 21 Dec H 3PM Stockport County
Thu 26 Dec A 3PM Eastleigh
Sat 28 Dec H 3PM Barnet
Wed 1 Jan H 3PM Eastleigh
Sat 4 Jan A 3PM Wrexham
Sat 18 Jan H 3PM Chorley
Sat 25 Jan A 3PM Dover Athletic
Sat 1 Feb H 3PM Harrogate Town
Sat 8 Feb A 3PM Hartlepool United
Sat 15 Feb H 3PM Boreham Wood
Sat 22 Feb A 3PM Maidenhead United
Sat 29 Feb A 3PM Notts County
Sat 7 Mar H 3PM Dagenham & Redbridge
Sat 14 Mar A 3PM AFC Fylde
Sat 21 Mar H 3PM Woking
Sat 28 Mar A 3PM Bromley
Sat 4 Apr H 3PM Solihull Moors
Fri 10 Apr A 3PM Sutton United
Mon 13 Apr H 3PM Torquay United
Sat 18 Apr A 3PM FC Halifax Town
Sat 25 Apr H 3PM Ebbsfleet United