Match report by James Garrison

Aldershot Town’s Recreation Ground witnessed a burger van going up in smoke last night.

Thankfully for Shrewsbury Town, the same fate didn’t befall the promotion hopes of Paul Simpson’s side.

See our match photo gallery here and read the full match report in today’s Shropshire Star

With a brief fire in a refreshment van directly behind the main stand leading to an evacuation of the ground some 90 minutes before kick-off, much of last night’s sizzling action took place before rather than during the match.

What followed was a stalemate which does more for Town’s hopes of securing a place in the play-offs than making a late burst to gatecrash the automatic promotion positions.

A failure to secure that long overdue away league success means the infuriating and tiresome statistics which have been churned out since victory at Exeter on August 16 remain valid.

But, taken in isolation, this will go down as a satisfactory point – even allowing for the fact Aldershot have been out of sorts in recent weeks.

With the raw disappointment of conceding three in each of the last two away games at Luton and Macclesfield still fresh in the mind, Simpson placed an emphasis on maintaining a tight ship as he reverted to a 4-5-1 shape.

It took a little while to settle with Aldershot’s pace and movement in the final third proving a handful during the opening 30 minutes.

But, on a night when chances at both ends were at a premium, Town gradually took a foothold in the game and ended the encounter the more likely to secure victory.

The visitors were to forge the best chance of the night on eight minutes.

Unmarked

Neat link-up play saw the ball worked out to the left where Ben Davies whipped in a perfect cross to pick out an unmarked Grant Holt.

But, when hitting the target would have surely produced a goal, Town’s leading scorer elected to go for precision and headed just the wrong side of the post..

It was a gilt-edged chance during a first 30 minutes when Aldershot had their best spell, inspired by on-loan Brighton striker Jamie Robinson – a lively forward Simpson was keen to bring to the Prostar Stadium.

Robinson was to fire two efforts just wide from the edge of the box while Shrewsbury successfully snuffed out two other decent Aldershot openings, Luke Daniels bravely saving at the feet of Scott Davies and Kelvin Langmead producing a terrific block to clear as shot from Ryan Hudson.

But gradually Town’s back four – which included the recalled Neil Ashton at left-back as Shane Cansdell-Sherriff moved into the five man midfield – nullified the Aldershot threat as the visitors imposed themselves on the game.

It meant Shrewsbury carried the greater threat through the second half as they enjoyed the majority of the possession and territory.

They were to test Aldershot’s keeper Mikhael Jaimez-Ruiz only once when he tipped a Cansdell-Sherriff volley from 20 yards round the post.

But there were to be a host of near misses for the visitors in and around the Aldershot area during the closing stages, and Town would have been a little frustrated not to have forced a winner through their second half superiority.

It all meant Shrewsbury halted a run of three successive away defeats and it had the feeling of a point gained at the full-time whistle.

But only at the end of the season will we know if that was truly the case or this was an opportunity missed.