FL2: Aldershot v Torquay United 13th April 2010

A rather belated reply from me because - after returning on Wednesday - I had to immediately head west (Truro 2 Didcot 1 on Thursday as an antidote to a rather serious conference during the day: Ricey rested; Broad and Adams in midfield; Marvin Brown upfront; Hodges and Afful on the bench. And did you notice that the Aaron Brown who recently played for Truro was in the Aldershot side on Tuesday night?).

Chris's observation about the circuitous route to the away section at Aldershot is an interesting one. I can’t speak from visits there in the past – because I often tended to stand with home supporters on my travels during the 1970s and 1980s – but the antiquity of some of the direction signs suggested the Long Way Round had been used when Aldershot were previously in the Football League. Does this ring true with anybody?

I arrived in Aldershot at 5pm on Tuesday evening and must say it’s a challenging town even for the experienced killer of time. Fortunately my previous visit had introduced me to Caffe Macchiato on Union Street, the unrivalled pinnacle of Aldershot’s pavement cafe culture. To be honest there’s very little competition and – as my dear old mum would have put it – Aldershot is a “dead and alive hole” surpassing even the likes of Margate (and certainly the Torbay towns) in the number of empty shops. What’s happening around there? Has the army pulled out to such an extent to desolate the place or –as my mate who’d ventured in from Church Crookham explained – are there simply better places to go locally to shop, eat or do anything other than watch football?

Indeed, harking back to Merse’s recent observation about some of the less-attractive football towns, I always think Aldershot has much in common with Gillingham. Both towns are lesser places in larger conurbations and far from being the local “flagship” town. In each case I guess the respective football clubs emerged from the pack due to local and cultural reasons (Gillingham even originally being known as New Brompton).

Then, after staying in a B&B in Farnham, I walked to Haslemere on Wednesday. In light of the "Have you ever seen a beach?" chant being aired on Tuesday evening it may interest you that I passed this “beach” less than ten miles from Aldershot the very next day. Where was I?