Aldershot Town

Aldershot Town go into the new season in the National League, the fifth tier of English football, on the back of a first FA Trophy win: a 3-0 defeat of Spennymoor Town in the 2025 final.

The club exists because its predecessor did not. Aldershot FC folded in 1992 under debts it could not clear, and the replacement started again from the bottom of the non-league pyramid, in the Isthmian League. It climbed three divisions inside a decade — the Third Division in 1992-93, the First Division in 1997-98, the Premier Division in 2002-03 — to reach the Conference.

That division fell too, in 2007-08, along with the Conference League Cup the same season, under manager Gary Waddock. The double sent The Shots back into the Football League sixteen years after the old club's demise. The stay lasted five seasons; relegation in 2013 brought administration, debts of over £1 million, and a takeover by a consortium led by Shahid Azim.

Home is the Recreation Ground, known commercially as the EBB Stadium, capacity 7,100. Jason Chewings played there 489 times between 1994 and 2004, more than anyone else in the club's history, and is still the only Aldershot player to have been granted a testimonial match. Across the county, Woking supply the fixture locals just call the derby, without any grander name attached to it.

The new club's first trophy, the Isthmian League Third Division title, came in 1992-93 — a year after the old Aldershot FC's collapse had left the town without senior football at all.