Aldershot Town

Aldershot Town Football Club is an English association football club based in Aldershot, Hampshire. The club participates in the Conference Premier, the fifth tier of English football. The club was founded in the spring of 1992 after the closure of debt-ridden Fourth Division club Aldershot F.C.. Aldershot Town play at the Recreation Ground in Aldershot. They competed in Football League Two from 2008 to 2013 but were relegated from the Football League at the end of the 2012–13 season. Aldershot Town entered administration on 2 May 2013. In March 1992, the town of Aldershot was without a football club after Aldershot F.C. became the first Football League team to fold during the football season since Accrington Stanley in 1962. Aldershot Town was born later the same year, and began life competing in the Isthmian League Division Three. Despite Aldershot Town playing five divisions lower than the Football League, the attendance for their first competitive fixture was higher than the old team's last home tie. Ten successive victories were recorded under the guidance of former player Steve Wignall and Aldershot won the championship by an 18-point margin. A further promotion and an FA Vase quarter-final placing was achieved in the 1993–94 season. When Steve Wignall departed to take charge of Colchester United mid-way through the 1994–95 season, former Nottingham Forest winger Steve Wigley took over. The club finished the 1994–95 season with a run of six successive victories, but missed out on promotion by goal difference. After narrowly missing out during the next two seasons Wigley left in July 1997 to become Youth Development Officer at Nottingham Forest. He was replaced by George Borg. Attendances continued to rise during this period and the final fixture of the 1997–98 Isthmian League First Division championship-winning season, at home to Berkhamsted Town, attracted 4,289 people to the Recreation Ground – a league record. The success under Borg continued with an Isthmian League Cup, two Hampshire Senior Cups and a runners-up spot in the Isthmian League Premier Division. The club's reserves were reinstated in 2000–01 and entered the Suburban League. The FA Cup in 2000–01 saw Aldershot take on league opposition at The Recreation Ground for the first time since reforming, when Brighton & Hove Albion visited for a 1st Round tie in November and a record attendance of 7,500 saw the league team win. In the following season's FA Cup the Shots held Bristol Rovers to a home draw in the First Round, but again missed out on the Second Round after losing the replay in Bristol. George Borg resigned as manager in November 2001 after pressure from supporters and was replaced by Terry Brown. He won his first game in charge beating Newport IOW 1–0 in the Hampshire Senior Cup Semi-final Second Leg, taking The Shots on to win the final against Havant & Waterlooville. In Brown's first full season in charge he overhauled the squad, and by mid-November the Shots were top of the table, a position they did not relinquish for the remainder of the season, winning promotion to the Football Conference. The club also retained the Hampshire Senior Cup with a 2–1 win over Bashley.