CHESTER 2, ALDERSHOT TOWN 0

ALDERSHOT Town’s winter of discontent continued as their early-season good form retreated even further into the freezing Cheshire mist on Saturday.

Once James Alabi had scored Chester’s second goal on 53 minutes, atoning for his eighth-minute penalty miss, Aldershot’s best hopes of a positive outcome lay in the fog which rolled into the Deva Stadium off the River Dee and hills of North Wales.

But the Shots were again the authors of their own nightmare before Christmas with slack defending and wayward finishing which left an exasperated Gary Waddock struggling to find new words to describe an all-too-familiar situation.

“Games are won in both penalty areas and we didn’t do well enough in both,” said Waddock, who saw his team twice hit the post in another tale of what might have been.

“We keep saying that every week and I’m getting fed up of saying it,” continued the manager. “You can’t fault the way the players went about it, but we’re not giving ourselves a chance in games because we’re not good enough in the penalty areas. We need to be mentally stronger and stand up to the challenge.”

A promising start was apparently undone as Tom Shaw measured a pass through to Alabi who broke past Will Evans and was brought down as he shaped to shoot. But Alabi’s penalty crashed off the post and eventually Chester’s momentum abated.

Jake Gallagher had a shot blocked by Ryan Astles and then dived in front of Shaw’s drive himself.

Shots teenager Idris Kanu was an increasing influence on the game, attracting two markers to halt his extravagant skills.

Aldershot seemed to have earned the solace of half-time, but then, on 44 minutes, Sam Hughes’ long pass out of defence sailed over the heads of Alabi and Callum Reynolds, and Evans and goalkeeper Mark Smith left it to each other to take control of a ball apparently rolling harmlessly out of play, closer to the corner flag than goal.

Instead, Jordan Chapell chased a hitherto lost cause down towards the byline to cut inside and fire a shot past Evans and through the legs of Smith.

Dion Conroy’s free-kick brought Alex Lynch into action soon after the interval. But then Evans departed with a sore back and Chester took advantage of more hesitance in the visiting defence to score a killer second goal on 53 minutes.

Alabi was allowed to rumble forward from the halfway line and feed Elliott Durrell on the right. He swung in a cross which ricocheted to the feet of Shaw whose shot was well saved by Smith, but Alabi reacted first to scramble the ball over the line.

Aldershot belatedly produced their best attacking spell. Shamir Fenelon’s shot was tipped onto the post by Lynch after good work by Gallagher and Kundai Benyu. Another Fenelon shot was blocked before Bernard Mensah, throwing himself ahead of his marker to meet Anthony Straker’s corner, saw a header crash off the post.

Finally, on 86 minutes, Lynch superbly tipped the ball over the bar as substitute Charlie Walker got a touch to divert Astles’ attempted clearance back towards goal.

The Blues had done enough to earn the points and stretch their unbeaten run to seven games and the travelling fans were left with a lingering sense not so much of festive misfortune, but of their team’s failure to earn their own luck.

Chester: Lynch; George, Hughes, Astles, Horwood (Joyce 62); Durrell (Waters 84), Shaw, Lloyd, Hunt; Chapell, Alabi (Marsh 90). Subs (not used): Roberts, Richards. Booked: Durrell, George.

Aldershot: Smith; Alexander (Allen 75), Evans (Benyu 52), Reynolds, Straker; Conroy, Gallagher; Fenelon, Mensah (Walker 73), Kanu; Rendell. Subs (not used): Wakefield, Kellermann. Booked: Alexander, Reynolds, Kanu.

Referee: Scott Oldham.

Attendance: 1,937.

* Aldershot will want to turn in a crowd-pleasing performance on Boxing Day when they host Woking at the EBB Stadium (ko 12.15pm). Jon McCarthy’s side have improved of late, but still have much to do if they are to stay clear of the National League drop-zone.

This will be Scott Rendell’s first meeting with his former club since he annoyed Cards’ fans by leaving Woking last June to rejoin their local rivals. Rendell is Aldershot’s leading scorer this season with six goals.

The sides meet in the return fixture at Woking’s Kingfield Stadium on New Year’s Day (ko 1pm).