Aldershot Town manager Tommy Widdrington was pleased with his side’s performance after they scored a dramatic late equaliser to draw 1-1 against Solihull Moors in the National League on Saturday.
Cian Harries struck late to cancel out former Shot Tahvon Campbell's opening goal, as the Shots and Solihull Moors shared the points at the EBB Stadium.
“I thought it was a really dominating performance,” said Widdrington. “We had a lot of the ball, and we had a lot of chances, but they always carry a threat. We know Tahv really well. I thought he worked his absolute socks off the whole game, a lot of it for nothing, but a lot of it just to put on pressure or force an error, so he’s earned his goal in fairness to the lad. It’s a little bit frustrating because I felt we did enough to win the game, but we’ve got to move on.
“I love the way our lads react. If we go down a goal at home it doesn’t worry me at all. I felt we were going to score a goal. I believe we’ve always got goals in us. I’ve got to be happy with a point in the end. We went 1-0 down and it looked like they were going to see it out, but our lads kept going and showed some real spirit so I was really pleased.”
The Shots had the better of the first half against Solihull, but were unable to make any chances to really trouble Nick Hayes. The opening exchanges saw Hady Ghandour nearly set up Lorent Tolaj with a pass across the box, and moments later Tolaj shot wide of Hayes' goal.
Theo Widdrington, Tolaj and Olly Scott all troubled the Solihull goal with half chances, but the best openings came from Ollie Harfield and Tyler Frost. The first came as Harfield put a good ball into the box from a corner, but nobody was able to flick it towards goal.
Frost played a wonderful reverse pass into the path of Josh Stokes, but it was just out of the reach of Stokes as Hayes came and claimed the ball.
Neither side would blink in the first half, and the two play-off chasers went into the break level.
The best chance for the Shots to take the lead came just after the restart, as Dylan Kadji did well to use his vision and accuracy to find Scott on the left-hand side of the Moors defence. Scott put a good ball into the near-post area, but Ghandour headed over.
The Shots had a good chance to take the lead just before the hour. Ghandour did well to flick a ball around a tight corner to find Frost. Frost squared the ball, but Tolaj got the ball stuck under his feet and the chance went away.
Solihull Moors nearly took the lead just before 65 minutes. Jon Benton did well to drive down the right with Scott on his back, and Campbell held off Kadji and played the ball into Tyrese Shade, who opened his body and hit the near post from close range.
The Moors took the lead with 72 minutes on the clock through Campbell. A corner was flicked on towards the back-post area where the former Aldershot striker was waiting to tap home from close range.
The Shots went straight up the other end from the resulting kick-off. Scott hit the post from just inside the box, and from the rebound Tolaj volleyed a first-time effort over the crossbar.
The Shots were really pressing for an equaliser, and a goalmouth scramble involving Tolaj and James Daly somehow didn’t result in a goal with just over ten minutes to go.
Aldershot were given a lifeline in the 88th minute, when Tolaj got on the end of a ball over the top and was taken out by Richard Stearman. Stearman was sent off and the Shots were awarded a penalty. Harries stepped up from the spot and tucked the penalty away to level the game.
The Shots now turn attention to an Easter double with trip to Maidenhead United on Good Friday and a home game against Dorking Wanderers on Easter Monday.