Aldershot were aiming for a bit more success and getting closer to the play-offs after a previous season which went pear-shaped and needed to be rescued by player-manager Chris Barker. He preferred to not take the role of a manager on permanent basis and instead the Shots went to Scotland and appointed Barry Smith as their new boss. He made his name with Dundee but was now being thrown at a different league which he needed to quickly learn about. Most of the signings were underwhelming and there was no escaping the fact that the team as a whole was weakened as top players in Brett Williams and Jordan Roberts departed and were not properly replaced. That said, Omar Beckley looked like a good addition to the back after a solid season in the division below while the likes of Jake Gallagher and Richard Brodie had experience and pedigree at this level. It was a rather meandering and unimpressive start of the season from the Shots but they did get some traction after winning heavily at Guisely to get off the mark in late August. They enjoyed five wins in seven games during the next month and in Charlie Walker had one of the strikers in best form in the league. He overcame a slow start to become a big player up front while Brodie soon started to fade as the controversial striker once again played well below his qualities and hardly contributed. The team continued to not really impress but still get some decent wins and stay clear of the bottom places. Yet it was already abundantly clear that this side’s ceiling was the mid-table and they just do not have the personnel and character to really aim for anything more. Smith was coming out as a rather static and dour manager in the dugout but he was able to organise the team well and their defended compactly in most games. Yet the lack of dynamism and quality from the wings was worrying and Aldershot kept on plodding away with little in the way of excitement for their fans overall. Indeed, a descent kicked off in November as they lost five games on the spin and a difficult 1:0 win over a poor Guiseley side was their sole win in a stretch of nine games. Fans were already getting tired of the football that their team was producing and there was no tangible improvement in the squad over the January window, with only a couple of loan additions brought in. Smith seemed happy enough to just what was needed to keep the team afloat in mid-table and the glaring lack of ambition was there too. The Shots had a brief good period at the start of 2016 but were soon back on a negative spiral and they actually won just two league games in a period of 11 outings from February to the last day of the season. It was just not good enough on too many occasions and the fans really turned against the side after a few very dispiriting home defeats at the hands of limited sides like Barrow, Boreham Wood and Southport. There was a slight worry that the team might be get dragged down late in the season as their form got only worse but that never really materialised. Yet a finish in the bottom half of the table was just not good enough and Smith decided to leave at the end of the season. His replacement is certainly going to be more popular as Gary Waddle, the man that won the Shots promotion seven years ago, is back at the helm for next season, even if he is unlikely to stage another promotion campaign straightaway.
