Aldershot to shoot down Northwich

Non-league / Gary Boswell / 06 September 2007 / Leave a Comment

Boswell's Betfair Blog - a bi-weekly round up of the best plays in the world of non-
league football

Boswell's Betfair Blog - a bi-weekly round up of the best plays in the world of non-
league football (Gary Boswell has been a non-league football betting specialist since 1999 and was the betting correspondent for the Non-League paper-2001-2006. He was a close season transfer coup for the new international publication NonLeague Today and also signed to write for Betfair at the end of the 06/07 season).

Just as the first six games of the season give a clear indication to the main candidates for relegation, so the first six or seven games also clearly points to the prime contenders for promotion and the current top five in the Blue Square premier should be taken very seriously from herein. Of course there is always scope for the middle rankers to go on a run either up the league or down it and changes in personnel can very often trigger this. But seven games is seven games and the great thing about leagues is that they do not lie and if you've been watching over these first few weeks, identifying the Champions does now start to become possible.

The surprise candidate in that top five for me are Aldershot. I had Gary Waddock's Shots as middle rankers and in my neutral pile but I'm shifting them over now into my pile of teams to be with. Five wins from the first seven cannot be ignored and along with Cambridge, they are one of the top teams who have already been tested against the stern opposition just below the top five and they passed that test on Tuesday night when they won away at Forest Green with only ten men on the field. That was a significant result in my book and it could be followed by them going temporarily top of the league on Saturday as they play home to the whipping boys of Northwich whilst those above either have tough games or are delayed until Monday night.

Aldershot's secret lies in scoring bags of goals and the key to their continued success could lie in John Grant keeping fit. He is a proven Conference standard striker and has been on fire so far this season. As a caveat, they have already been beaten comprehensively by one of the other top five when Torquay trounced them 3-0 and that may also prove to be a significant result in trying to weigh up the Champions at this stage. The Gulls are indeed turning out to be a better side than expected and there is another key game for them on Monday night as they travel to the Pirelli for the Live on Setanta game. More on that in the next blog.

For now, keep your eye on all those top five and note September 22nd in your notebook as that is the day Cambridge play Stevenage in another of the games that should tell us who to go for. I have a sneaking feeling at this point that Cambridge could be the ones to be on and I have set September 22nd as the date for making up my mind.
For now, make sure Cambridge and Aldershot are in your Championship portfolio if they are not already. Their prices are still over long on the Betfair markets.And take Aldershot as an absolute banker to beat Northwich in the match betting this weekend.

Instead of five top teams, the Blue Square North has thrown up two who might be dominant in Kettering and Harrogate. The Poppies in particular have looked impressive under Mark Cooper. Controversial chairman Imran Ladak might finally have found his man in the ex-Tamworth boss. After all the messing about with glory seekers that saw Paul Gascoigne and Ron Atkinson spend time at the club (remember all those years ago when both of them put football first??), Ladak has bounced back from his extraordinary interference in the play-offs to hand the reins of what is a massive club at this level over to a man who works hard at guess what....winning football matches! Six out of six so far and very likely to become seven out of seven as they play home to troubled Boston United this weekend.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

2pts Aldershot to beat Northwich @ 1.6 or better
2pts Kettering to beat Boston United @ 1.6 or better

1pt Aldershot @ 17.0
1pt Cambridge @ 15.0 or better to win the Blue Square Premier outrights

1pt Kettering @ 3.55
1pt Harrogate @ 5.0 to win the Blue Square North outrights