Why shot in the foot you may ask? Well if he reflects on it I think John Sheridan must regret the central midfield partnership of Green and Whaley. Whilst succesful at Crewe in midweek they found themselves out of their depth against a committed and hard working Aldershot side.
Before the game started we had another rare glimpse of Chester the Fieldmouse, and then the penny dropped, we had a couple of mascots. So that's it then Chester is only rolled out when some kindly parent has chosen to give their child the gift money can buy of being the match day sponsor.
Now to me this raises very serious questions. Have we got a mascot who is so cash orientated that he can only be tempted out on the promise of paid employment? What about all those grim winter fixtures with no mascots, is he tucked up snug and warm in a nest somewhere? Given our promotion push when the whole club and fans are being called on a bit more of Chester's time in wipping the crowd into a frenzy wouldn't seem to go amiss!
The longer a winning streak goes on the more nervous you become but I kept the faith and included the mighty blues as a home win on my coupon. Don't worry I was let down by plenty of other teams so back to work on Monday for me.
The Aldershot fans win by some distance the best flags award for the season. A really impressive display with many of the flags not looking out of place if they had been in the San Siro in the Champions League in the week. In conjunction with a bright yellow Villareal kit it did bring a faint waft of the European to the afternoon.
I thought we started reasonably okay, Aldershot had clearly come to make us work hard to break them down, something we shoould be used to by now. But as the half wore on I felt we fell into the trap of hoofing the ball up to BC, which the Aldershot centre half coped with quite easily. We did look very one dimensional with no width at all, which could have come from Green but of course he was in the middle.
Half time came with the game goal-less but it wasn't a disappointing spectacle just very tight with two committed teams, we just need to take the game by the scruff of the neck!
At half time the Blues on the Move draw was made and it occurred to me that I have been paying into that since at least 1993 and here we are 17 years down the line just about to move. I wonder what all our cash has been spent on in that time? Hhmmmm.
The only goal of the game came after a Chesterfield corner at which Rob Page almost scored, Aldershot broke quickly and with purpose and rounded the move off with a straight forward header. That bought about changes soon after and Green and BC were replaced by Niven and Boden and almost immediately we looked better.
But we huffed and puffed and didn't really create any clear chances just a couple of half chances late on and so the points went to Aldershot.
A quick word here on the sponsors man of the match which has got pretty bizarre and plumbed new depths on Saturday as the award went to Whaley. Who would have thought we'd got a prawn sandwich brigade at Saltergate who know nothing of football?
So where does this leave us? well only two points behind Bury but Rotherham and Notts County both have games in hand. Unless we have a calamitous drop in form the play offs look a certainty but can we push on for automatic? I still think we can but need to start to look the part on the field a bit more, will Jack Lester return? All the teams in contention seem to be capable of dropping points. Keith's wise words this week are that he fancies Notts County to make a strong charge as they've now sorted the ownership and management issues out. We'll see next Tuesday in the meantime Cheltenham on Saturday.
Come on you Blues!