ALDERSHOT TOWN 4, WOKING 0

SCOTT Rendell scored a hat-trick against his former club on a day when everything went right for Aldershot and absolutely everything went for wrong for Woking.

The Boxing Day lunchtime game was played out in clear, fresh weather and a season’s best crowd of 3,456 were anticipating the usual closely-fought local derby.

But the 527 travelling fans had precious little to shout about. Aldershot scored twice inside the first ten minutes and by the time the third goal went in after 25 minutes, the Cards’ confidence was shot to pieces. Thereafter, it was a damage-limitation exercise for Garry Hill’s side.

The four-nil interval score did not lie and the Shots played probably their best football of the season in the first half. But they were assisted by some lamentable defending. Woking failed even in the basics of marking properly at corners, of which there were plenty, and so vulnerable were they to high crosses that there were loud ironic cheers each time goalkeeper Brandon Hall managed to take the ball cleanly.

There was an immediate warning sign for the visitors when Anthony Straker – outstanding on the left – whipped in a testing cross and Idris Kanu narrowly missed the target with an improvised volley.

With eight minutes gone, Hall flapped at another teasing centre from Straker and succeeded only in presenting the ball to Rendell who gleefully hooked it into a gaping net.

With the home fans still celebrating, Aldershot sliced through Woking’s porous defence and Jake Gallagher’s delightful final pass released Shamir Fenelon who finished clinically. Two-nil with barely ten minutes gone.

Rendell, who quit Woking for Aldershot last summer, had attracted some half-hearted booing, but the striker silenced the away stand for good by scoring again on 25 minutes. Cheye Alexander’s left-wing corner found Rendell ghosting in undetected to prod the ball beyond Hall who had remained rooted to his line.

The Shots’ thrusting forward play continued to create chances for the three-pronged attack of Rendell, Kanu and Fenelon, and Woking could have taken even heavier punishment.

Rendell mistimed a header with a hat-trick there for the taking and Fenelon, unmarked in front of goal, got his radar wrong when Bernard Mensah supplied an inviting cross from the left.

But as the half moved into added time, Mensah swapped flanks and, after another incisive Shots move, delivered the killer ball for Rendell to complete his treble with a tap-in goal.

Hill no doubt had plenty to say to his shell-shocked players at the break, but the manager could not stir the Cards out of their strange lethargy.

Predictably, the second half was a quieter affair. Gallagher was booked early on – no surprise there – but it was a more pragmatic exercise by Aldershot as they closed the game out for the three points.

The main entertainment was supplied by the East Stand fans with their increasingly inventive chanting.

Woking rang the changes to little good effect, while Kanu spurned a decent chance to make it five, driving high over the bar after Rendell’s header back across goal.

The Cards belatedly came to life midway through the half and were only denied a possible way back into the game by Jake Cole’s excellence in the home goal. Gozie Ugwu was sent clear by substitute Anthony Edgar, only for Cole to make a superb block.

Woking came again and referee Craig Hicks pointed to the spot after Kundai Benyu had shoved Charlie Carter on the corner of the area. Ugwu struck the penalty well, but Cole, making his first start for over a month, guessed right and parried brilliantly, and skipper Callum Reynolds dived in to make the final clearance.

That no doubt convinced the visitors that it was not going to be their day and the Shots strolled through the rest of the game.

Mensah almost applied the icing on the cake after skipping his way through the entire Woking defence, but ended up face-down in despair after shooting high and missing the chance for glory in a match being relayed live by BT?Sport.

At the final whistle, Rendell claimed the match ball, while a dejected Woking were left to plot a strategy for revenge in the return holiday fixture at Kingfield on New Year’s Day (Sunday, ko 1pm).

Aldershot: Cole, Alexander, Conroy, Reynolds, Straker, Mensah, Gallagher, Benyu (Evans 83), Fenelon (McClure 61), Rendell (Kellerman 77), Kanu. Sub (not used): Smith. Booked: Gallagher, Benyu.

Woking: Hall, Caprice Shaw, Yakubu (Thomas 66), Saah, Jones, Murtagh (Saraiva 61), Carter, Ferdinand, Ralph (Edgar 61), Ugwu. Subs (not used): Poke, Sam-Yorke. Booked: Jones

Referee: Craig Hicks.

Attendance: 3,456 (527 away).

“A REALLY, really good performance, especially in the first half,” said Gary Waddock, the Aldershot manager. “The way we played in that first 45 minutes was very pleasing. You could say the job was done, but we wanted to keep a clean sheet and Jake with his penalty save was able to do that for us.

“The performance was up where we were at the beginning of the season – if not better. That’s down to the players and the work they have put in. They will gather a lot of confidence from this performance.”