March 20 – Shot Down | On This Football Day

March 20 – Shot Down

AS THE economy continues to contract quicker than Steven Ireland’s hairline, placing several lower and non-league clubs in genuine danger of going under, it’s back to 1992 when Aldershot FC today played their last ever game.

The Shots had been ambling around the lower regions of English football since their formation in 1926, when a Jack White, – a local journalist, not the White Stripes frontman – formed the club and entered them into the Southern League (Eastern).

By 1932 they had found their way into the Football League, where they would remain until their final days, reaching a high point of eight in the Third Division in 1974.

In 1985 the Shots came close to signing Teddy Sheringham after the young Millwall striker had impressed on loan at the Recreation Ground, but couldn’t afford the £5,000 fee.

Talking of money, this is where the story goes sour. The late 1980s had seen Aldershot return to the Third Division, but relegation and a financial crisis engulfed the club, meaning they looked unlikely to start the 1990/91 season.

In July 1990 the club were officially wound in the High Court, condemned as being “financially insolvent” with debts of almost £500,000, but were saved a week later when 19-year-old property developer Spencer Trethewy rode in on his white horse with £200,000 to keep the club alive.

As we’ve written about before here and here, the words ‘property developer’ should set alarm bells off in the head of any football fan, and Trethewy was soon found out, as the board realised he didn’t have the funds to maintain the club and told him to sling his hook three months later.

Aldershot struggled on that season, now with Brian Talbot in as player-manager, but today in 1992 played their final game, losing 2-0 to Cardiff City at Ninian Park as they couldn’t keep the wolf from the door any longer.

Shot fans didn’t take their team’s bankruptcy lying down however, creating a phoenix club, Aldershot Town in time to start the next season in Isthmian League Division Three, five levels tiers down the league from the old Division Four. At the end of last season the long road back to the football league was complete when Town won the Conference National.

See the fans celebrating promotion below and check out what other shenanigans were going on today here.