On This Day – 25th March
First of all, happy birthday to my sister Jenny!
It was on this day in 1992 that Aldershot Football Club were declared bankrupt with debts of £1,200,000. They became the first club to leave the league midway through the season since Accrington Stanley did 30 years before.
The writing had been on the wall for several years for the club, but they carried on, desperately clinging on. Players weren’t getting paid and bills weren’t getting paid.
Aldershot’s last game had been played on Friday 20th March when they lost 2-0 at Cardiff City.
Within days, plans were being put together to form a new football club. Aldershot Town were formed, with a new Chairman called Terry Owens.
The new club were accepted into the Isthmian League Division Three, the fifth tier of non-league football.
The Shots stormed to the league title in their first season and were promoted again in the second season. I started supporting the club during this campaign.
There was a four year wait until the club were promoted again under George Borg in the 1997/98 season.
Borg had left in 2002 and replaced by Terry Brown. In Brown’s first full season in charge, he guided the club to promotion to the Conference.
After a four year spell in the Conference, Gary Waddock guided Aldershot to the Conference title, gaining a record points tally of 101 points.
Sixteen years since the first club had gone bankrupt, League football returned to the town of Aldershot!
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