Late defeat to Chesterfield is 'heartbreaking', says 'gutted' Aldershot Town manager

The Shots led 1-0 and got it back to 3-3 after trailing 3-1, before conceding in the 87th minute to fall to their first home defeat of the season.

But, on this display, Widdrington’s men will be a match for most teams this season and won’t be involved in a relegation battle as many predicted.

“It is heartbreaking,” Widdrington.

"Paul (Cook) has just told me he would have shook hands at 3-3, he said ‘I would have taken a point’. We have had some really nice praise from their end.

"I thought it was two good sides. I thought both sides posed a real attacking threat in a similar way. The difference being they had more senior men in their team that understood the difference of when to play and when not to play and where to take risks and where not to take risks.

"I am gutted that we did not take anything from the game but I am delighted with a lot of what we did. We scored three really good goals but we are too vulnerable at the moment. I have just been chatting with Paul (Cook) and he feels the same way about his team. He was very pleasant in his praise for the way we have attacked them, not many teams would do that.”

He added: "At the moment I am still smarting that we did not take something from the game after scoring three goals at home, that is absolutely criminal.

"We have shot ourselves in the foot too many times, it is something I have got to make decisions about because we are not defending our box well enough.

"We are disappointed with the defeat but we are not disappointed with a lot of the performance.”

'Lovely touches' - Chesterfield player ratings from epic win against Aldershot Town