Aldershot Town 1, Yeovil Town 3

BEMUSED Shots boss Danny Searle hinted at changes after seeing his side surrender to red-hot Yeovil Town at the soggy EBB Stadium on Tuesday night.

The Shots had bright spells throughout but were ultimately undone by an in-form Yeovil side who have marched up the National League table on the back of six consecutive wins.

And the Shots, who had drawn level courtesy of Max Hunt’s thumping header from a corner by Jack Powell which cancelled out Myles Hippolyte’s early opener, could have few complaints as a string of errors cost them dear in the rain.

A curling effort from Jimmy Smith and a third from Rhys Murphy sent the noisy visiting fans into raptures as they already contemplate a charge back into the Football League.

And only the introduction of Jacob Berkeley-Agyepong and Shamir Mullings, to form a three-pronged attack alongside Harrison Panayiotou with around 25 minutes left, gave the Shots a focal point and some real purpose to their attacks.

“The way we’ve been playing has worked for us, even at Barnet up until half-time and we looked good, but it’s horses for courses and we have to take a look at things,” said Searle.

“There aren’t many players who can walk off the pitch and say ‘I gave my best performance tonight’ which is disappointing, so potentially there could be changes on Saturday because we have to make sure we have the people with the right mindset on the pitch.

“We were beaten by the better side. They were sharper than us tonight, they looked livelier than us.”

Tuesday night’s defeat was a seventh loss in 13 games so far this season and a fourth defeat on home turf.

“I understand the fans’ frustrations but we also have to put things into perspective a little bit,” said Searle. “Were we good enough tonight? No, we weren’t. Will be play teams of that calibre every week? No, we won’t. Going forward we have to understand that when you play against teams of this quality, on the run that they are on, it’s going to be tough and you are going to find it hard, and we did tonight.

“Yeovil have come here and look like a side that has won five in a row and when you play against those sort of teams they are hard to stop sometimes. But even though I thought they were a better side than us tonight the goals were massively avoidable.”

Yeovil’s opening goal came as the Shots defence appeared to stand still vainly appealing for handball while a quick throw in the defensive third proved Aldershot’s undoing for the second goal, while Murphy was allowed to turn his man before rifling in the third.

“For me that was the disappointing thing because we weathered the storm,” said Searle.

“They started well Yeovil and they got their goal and then we get the equaliser. I think we had relative control and that’s why it’s so disappointing that someone is allowed to pick up the ball and throw it the way he did. Fair play to them, nice little bit of combination play and good finish but it was too easy and it just takes the wind out of your sails a little bit.

“But going in at half-time we thought if we keep going like that we’ll get chances, but you can’t allow forwards to receive the ball in the final third and then square you up. We had him facing away from goal and that’s where we should have kept him. You pay the price at this level.”

Despite Aldershot’s inconsistency, and the fact that back-to-back wins remain elusive, Searle and his charges clearly retain the support of the EBB faithful, as highlighted by a decent 1,684 crowd on a rainy Tuesday.

“We have to energise the fans and for the most part today we did, we had a go,” said Searle.

“We didn’t give up. No-one can look at us and say we threw the towel in and capitulated because we didn’t. One or two people are making some comments but they’re going to, it’s an emotive sport and people are entitled to their opinion. I think the fans are behind us because overall they have seen what we have been trying to do this season.

“Games like today don’t help but we have still won three of the last six and if we can pick up points on Saturday it will change again. We knew it was going to be a see-saw season.”

Tomorrow, the Shots will look to get back to winning ways when they head to Derbyshire to face struggling Chesterfield at the Proact Stadium(kick-off 3pm).