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Aldershot F.C.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Aldershot | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Full name | Aldershot Football Club (Formely Aldershot Town) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nickname(s) | The Shots | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Founded | 1926 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dissolved | 1992 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ground | Recreation Ground (Capacity circa 15000) |
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| League | Fourth Division | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Aldershot Football Club was an English Football League club which went out of business in 1992. The club was nicknamed The Shots for both the last syllable of the town name and the military links to Aldershot.
The club was founded in 1926 as Aldershot Town, and admitted to league football when Thames A.F.C. declined to apply for re-election in 1932. The 'Town' part of the name was dropped in 1937. They spent every season in the Football League until being declared bankrupt by the High Court as a result of debt owed in taxes.
Aldershot F.C. were among the founder members of Division 4 in 1958/9, and the first winners of a play-off final, beating Wolverhampton Wanderers over two legs. The club twice reached the fifth round of the FA Cup, once in its inaugural Football League season and once in 1978/79. An FA Cup match against Carlisle United on 28 January 1970 saw Aldershot's record attendance of 19,138. Teddy Sheringham played for Aldershot six times while on loan to the team in 1985. Their most recent success was beating Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Fourth Division playoffs in 1987 to win promotion to the Third Division, but they were relegated back to the Fourth Division two years later. In August 1990 they were wound up in High Court, 'hopelessly insolvent' with debts of £490,000. They were then saved from closure by 19-year-old property developer Spencer Trethewy.
Their manager at this time was Len Walker, who took over in June 1985, achieved promotion in 1987 and was retained after relegation in 1989. He became General Manager in March 1991 on the appointment of Brian Talbot as player-manager, but Talbot remained in charge of the Shots for just eight months before being replaced by Ian McDonald, who was at the helm for four months leading up to Aldershot's bankruptcy.
On 25 March 1992 Aldershot F.C. finally went out of business and were obliged to resign from the Football League. The final game played was against Cardiff City at Ninian Park, five days before the club went out of business. Aldershot's league record for the 1991-92 season was expunged, and they had been bottom of the league at the time of their resignation.
In response to the bankruptcy a group of supporters set up Aldershot Town F.C., which started in the Ryman Isthmian League League Division Three - much lower than the division in which Aldershot F.C. had been playing, although they are now just one promotion away from bringing league football back to the town.