Aldershot Town’s play-off hopes suffered a blow as they fell to a 2-0 defeat at Hartlepool United in the National League on Saturday.

A Mani Dieseruvwe penalty and a Tom Parkes header gave Hartlepool the three points.

The Shots were the side creating chances in the opening stages and were looking dangerous down the wings. Hartlepool were gifted an opportunity to take the lead on 18 minutes after Ryan Glover's attempted clearance was nicked away by Dieseruvwe, who was brought down by Glover in the corner of the area. Dieseruvwe stepped up and his powerful penalty found the top corner and gave Jordi van Stappershoef no chance.

Aldershot started the second half brightly. Josh Stokes took the ball down in the Pools box just a minute in, but Pete Jameson did well to smother the ball after Stokes tried to slot it under the home keeper. Stokes came close twice more in the following three minutes. James Daly dinked the ball in from the left for the attacking midfielder to see his volley parried wide, before seeing a close-range effort denied by good reactions from Jameson from the resulting corner.

Dieseruvwe broke away late on after hesitancy from Cian Harries and he squared the ball across the box to Callum Cooke, who failed to beat Van Stappershoef. Harries blocked the first rebound, and Dylan Kadji was well positioned to clear another effort off the line. Hartlepool doubled their lead from the resulting corner as Parkes headed home on 87 minutes.