Once again a good day out was spoiled by 90 minutes in mid-afternoon.

As supporters we can’t control the events on the pitch but we can control our day before and after the game. As usual we got our part right but then the team let us down.

The sun was shining, we arrived in Aldershot just under two hours before kick-off, found a decent pub and sat with opposition fans drinking and talking football, just as it should be. So well was our afternoon going that we got into the ground and within sight of the pitch exactly as the game kicked-off. You can’t time it any better than that.

It all started to go downhill at that point, however. Admittedly, when under the influence you don’t necessarily take everything in but even in our mellow state we could tell that it was a poor game. It all may have been so different had Simon Heslop buried the early chance that he had instead of blazing it over the bar but to be fair it shouldn’t have got to him because Gareth Sheldon should have buried the original shot.

Unfortunately we didn’t have many chances as good as that; even though we were playing the team at the bottom of the league we couldn’t put them away. It’s all very well having most of the possession but if you don’t turn it into chances and then the chances into goals it all counts for nothing.

It was a typically sloppy goal that we went behind to too, a shot from the edge of the area only parried by the keeper and no Harriers defender quick enough to react as two Shots players managed to get their heads on it before it hit the net. I can’t think of too many, if any, goals conceded this season that you would describe as good goals, ones that you can’t criticise the defence for. Tim sills may have come close to one with his shot in stoppage time that crashed back off the bar but luckily for us it didn’t go in.

We should have been back in the game by then as Aldershot were down to ten man after Darren Barnard was sent off when he brought down Iyseden Christie from behind when he was through on goal. The free kick was poor, hitting the wall, and then we couldn’t make the numerical advantage count, even sacrificing a defender for an extra attacker in the closing minutes. Christie should have done better, perhaps, with a header at the death but once again it was not to be our day.

I suppose overall the performance wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t good either. There was some effort shown by the players, obviously not enough given the result, but the players don’t seem able to string two solid all-round performances together so all the signs of a possible improvement shown in the game against Morecambe came to nothing and we have to start all over again.

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A suburb of Nottingham, Arnold is a little off the beaten track but that doesn’t mean you can’t get a decent drink.

We managed to find two pubs in the same road as the ground; the Friar Tuck is right next door and The Arrow only a few minutes walk – although there is a hill to negotiate.

Both pubs are owned by the John Bullas Company and are therefore very similar. First impressions from the outside are that they are restaurant pubs as they have that big family look about them although without the Wacky Warehouse type extension. On the inside, however, there’s something for everyone with darts, pool, food, smoking and non-smoking areas, and at least three real ales for those who are that way inclined.

Between us we got through three pints each before deciding that we ought to head back to watch the game which as per usual spoiled a good night out!

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It just goes to show what you can achieve with a bit of hard work and commitment.

The performance against Morecambe wasn’t the greatest by any stretch of the imagination but after some of the rubbish we’ve had to endure in the past five games this was much, much, better.

It was back-to-basics stuff; after experimenting with wing-backs in the game against Tamworth Stuart went with a bog-standard 4-4-2, and made a raft of changes to the starting line-up at the same time. It can’t just be a coincidence that while Martin O’Connor has been out of the team we have been rubbish, and then restored to the side we win; his influence is far greater than many give him credit for, it’s just a pity that he is so old and liable to break down injured again at any time.

Terry Fleming came back into the side also after his suspension but I was far less impressed with his contribution. He is a player who has flattered to deceive so far in a Harriers shirt; he can’t really be too bad because of the number of games he has played in his career but there is loads more to come from him.

Compare and contrast the state of Fleming’s kit at the end of the game with that of Iyseden Christie’s; Terry’s was still mostly clean, Iyseden’s so dirty you couldn’t tell what colour it was supposed to be. The big man worked his socks off again and is proving to be a real handful for defenders in this league. Who knows what might have happened had he been fit for us last season, but it’s probably fair to say we would still be in the Football League.

After his disappointing run-out at wing-back last weekend I was far more impressed with Gareth Sheldon as a striker; he took his goal well which sparked much hilarity amongst my friends as Karl had just been saying how bad a player he is. Shelds did a lot of running and covered a lot of ground, at least this week when he got substituted it was because he was knackered and not because he was crap.

It will be interesting to see whether Stuart sticks with the 4-4-2 in coming games. In a way I hope he does not, it’s a basic formation that players, no matter how stupid they are, can all cope with. It suggests that the players are not good enough to get to grips with anything more adventurous. On the other hand, if we win with it it doesn’t really matter.

Did you notice that Aldershot went to the bottom of the league after this weekend’s games? What are the odds that three out of four games we play are against the bottom team in the league and it’s a different team each time?

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It was good to see Adie Smith, Scott Stamps and Graham Ward back at Aggborough. What wasn’t so good to see was Adie having a man-of-the-match performance as Harriers were turned over by the league’s bottom team for the second time in a week.

The new formation, whether you see it as 3-4-3 or 5-2-3, didn’t really work. Three central defenders should have helped to shore up a defence that has been giving away too many stupid goals, but that was not the case as Carl Heggs’ winner came as a result of a goalmouth scramble that had numerous chances for the defenders to clear. Steve Burton came in for his first start of the season and did OK at left wing-back but Gareth Sheldon was disappointing on the opposite flank and didn’t really contribute to the game.

Trouble is, if you have an extra man at the back and he doesn’t play well it restricts your options in attack and yet again Harriers looked poor, to say the least, in this department. There was little or no service coming to Iyseden Christie who again worked hard for no reward.

Adie Smith apart Tamworth were a poor side themselves, which is why they were bottom of the league. He almost snatched a second goal for them but manage to fire high and wide when clean through on John Danby. He was probably feeling sorry for us!

You couldn’t really argue with any of the people who booed the team off the park at the end, we were really dreadful, although the bloke behind me who launched a ten-minute tirade against Wayne Hatswell after he dropped a back-pass a bit short was a bit over the top.

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