‘I need my players to give it their all for Shots’

THE BIG INTERVIEW TOMMY WIDDRINGTON

- CHRIS DUNLAVY

WREXHAM’S promotion in May bestowed a dubious honour on Aldershot Town. They are now the longest-serving club in the National League.

“The supporters don’t want that record,” says manager Tommy Widdrington. “I don’t want that record. Nobody wants that record.

“That’s not me saying we’re a big club or a sleeping giant or anything like that. What I’m saying is that when I was a kid growing up in Newcastle, I knew Aldershot Town were a club in the Football League.

“That might not be the objective right now but it has to be the ultimate aspiration of any club in this division. Otherwise what’s the point in being here?”

Aldershot nearly did lose their unwanted title last season, but it wasn’t the sort of triumphant exit that Widdrington aspires to.

When the former Southampton midfielder was controversially lured from King’s Lynn to replace Ross McNeilly in April, the Shots had won once in ten attempts and sat just five points above the relegation zone. A week later, the gap was down to two.

Ultimately, successive victories against Scunthorpe and Wealdstone proved enough to hold off Gary Johnson’s resurgent Torquay, but it was a close-run thing.

“Too close,” admits Widdrington. “Which is why the first objective has to be making sure we’re not looking over our shoulders again in April.

“When I got here there was nothing wrong with the fitness and the organisation. But the team didn’t have a definitive identity on the pitch.