GATESHEAD 0, ALDERSHOT TN 1

ALDERSHOT Town completed the perfect week on the road with a classic away-day smash-and-grab which took them to the top of the congested National League table.

Substitute Fabien Robert snatched the 83rd-minute winner on Saturday to give the Shots a first-ever victory at Gateshead and a second win in five days, proving that a week in football can be a very long time indeed.

The previous Saturday, Aldershot had been horribly lacklustre in losing to Dover, but 180 minutes against Ebbsfleet and the Tynesiders proved the ideal tonic as Gary Waddock’s injury-hit squad bounced back with another display full of spirit and resolve.

The game may have been largely scrappy and dour, but that mattered not as Aldershot inflicted a first home defeat of the season upon a Gateshead team which looked disjointed and toothless for long periods.

“This is a really valuable three points,” said Waddock, who missed Robert’s winner while answering a call of nature. “They came on strong in the second half, but we made changes and in the end those changes have won us the game.

Aldershot have seven players on the injury list. “But the fit players that we have left available have given everything,” said Waddock, “and what a magnificent effort it has been. It’s an excellent return from these two away games, and while today probably wasn’t our best performance of the season, you sometimes have to grind out results and we’ve done that.”

In a game of few clear, quality chances, James Rowe’s ninth-minute shot, straight at Dan Hanford at the end of a flowing, passing move, could have given the visitors a decisive early lead.

Danny Johnson was a robust threat for the northerners, albeit slightly blunted by a lack of service. A Rowe free-kick, strongly parried by Hanford midway through the half, represented the only other save of the opening 45 minutes.

The hosts, however, were a renewed force after the break. On 52 minutes, Luke Hannant’s shot was well blocked and Jake Cole smothered Johnson’s angled follow-up.

Johnson and Richard Peniket continued to exert pressure on the away goal, but then Waddock made two changes which eventually swung the game in his favour.

Robert, the French midfielder on loan from Forest Green, added a touch of guile to an otherwise rather ugly game and then Kodi Lyons-Foster’s introduction at left-back helped nullify Gateshead’s raids down the flank.

By then, Neill Byrne had powered a header wide of the post, and it was from another corner, at the other end, that Robert stole the points.

Hanford failed to connect with his punch and the loose ball was only headed out to Robert, 12 yards from goal, who hooked his shot into the bottom corner of the net.

Cole had to repel Jordan Preston’s shot in stoppage time, but Gateshead’s attacking prowess had been too rudimentary and too sporadic to trouble an Aldershot defence already recording a sixth clean sheet in 11 games.

Waddock is, of course, too coy to acclaim his side’s current position, but he knows that such miserly defending will stand his team in good stead.

Gateshead: Hanford; Williams, Vassell, Byrne, Fyfield, O’Donnell; Hannant, Penn (Preston 84), McLaughlin; Johnson (Langstaff 70), Peniket (Burrow 70). Subs (not used): Macleod, Maxwell. Booked: Byrne.

Aldershot: Cole; Alexander, Fowler, Reynolds, Arthur (Lyons-Foster 75); Kellermann (Oyeleke 75), Gallagher, McDonnell, Rowe; Rendell, McClure (Robert 62). Subs (not used): Wrightman, Smith.

Referee: Karl Evans.

Attendance: 654 (127 away).

• Aldershot face another stern test this Saturday when Leyton Orient visit the EBB Stadium. The London club previously played in the top flight of English football during a long, chequered history.

• Fabien Robert scored again on Tuesday, this time with a delightful chip, but could not prevent a young Aldershot side losing 2-1 at Eastleigh in the second round of the Hampshire Senior Cup.

• Veteran freelance photographer Eric Marsh, who has covered Aldershot matches since the 1960s, first saw the Shots play as a 10-year-old exactly 70 years ago in 1947. “They played Brighton in the old Division Three South and it was a one-one draw,” recalled Eric. “Ronnie Wood scored for Aldershot and we also missed a penalty. Ron Reynolds (later to play for Tottenham) was in goal and the crowd was six thousand.”

• Russ Howell has stepped down from Aldershot’s board of directors. After joining the board in 2013, he played a major role in helping the club out of administration and in exiting the resulting CVA two years ahead of schedule.