A DAY WE WILL NEVER FORGET!

SO, in the end it proved a step too far, but Tommy Widdrington and Aldershot Town can look back with pride on an FA Cup journey they won’t forget in a hurry.

- JON COUCH

First, that astonishing 7-4 win at Swindon Town, from 7-0 up, then edging it at Edgley Park, thanks to Ollie Scott’s dramatic late winner against Stockport County.

It led them to a third round trip to West Bromwich Albion on Sunday when the dream finally came to an end – but not before the Shots left their mark on the West Midlands and the competition as a whole.

A staggering 4,861 travelling fans – almost double the club’s average home league gate – made their way up the M40 from Hampshire for, arguably, the biggest game in the phoenix club’s history. The handily-placed Greggs and various bar outlets in the heart of the Fan Zone were doing a roaring trade.

West Brom, five-time winners and five-time runners-up of the FA Cup, were famously eliminated from the competition by Aldershot’s big rivals Woking in 1991, and given a scare by Chesterfield at this stage 12 months ago but never looked in danger of slipping up here.

While Baggies boss Carlos Corberan could afford to make eight changes from his starting eleven and hand senior debuts to no fewer than five of his youngsters, opposite number Widdrington was shorn of, arguably, his two best players; wonderkid, Josh Stokes, who was harshly handed a second yellow card for diving in the New Year’s Day derby at Woking, and key defender Hal Mnoga, who was with Tanzania in the Asian Cup.