In a shocking turn of events, former Bristol Rovers director of football and Kings Lynn manager Tommy Widdrington, has made the late switch to become Aldershot Town manager, as confirmed in a statement on the club website.
Widdrington will take over the National League side with immediate effect in an attempt to save the Shots from relegation with six games remaining.
The former Rovers man was most recently in charge of National League North team Kings Lynn, where he had the Linnets in second place as they prepared for a potential playoff run.
Joining the club in December 2021, a week after leaving the Gas, the move has come with controversy with Kings Lynn stating no official approach came in for their former manager by Aldershot.
Widdrington was in the dug-out for Lynn’s 1-0 win over Chorley this past Saturday, however, an hour after the game it was confirmed he had left the club for a new job elsewhere.
48 hours later, we now know he has made the switch for a relegation battle at Aldershot, where he has replaced Ross McNeilly, who will return to his former role of academy manager for the Shots.
Currently sitting five points above the relegation zone in 19th place, Aldershot will be keeping a close eye on the teams around them, with their competitors having extra games in hand.
With the bottom four teams going down in the National League, the 51-year-old won’t get much time to turn things around, joining a side with just one win in their last nine league games.
In the statement announcing Widdrington as manager, club chairman Shahid Azeem said: Firstly, thanks to Ross for all of his huge effort and hard work since stepping up from Academy Manager back in October.”
“With just six games left, we felt we needed to make a change and when notified of Tommy’s resignation, wanted to act quickly to secure the man that we believe can help us with the final push towards mathematical safety.”
Writer’s View
The timing of this move is the strangest part, with it being very logical why Kings Lynn and the fans have a problem.
According to Aldershot, Widdrinton handed in his resignation just an hour after a win, and not even two days later he has a new job. With it being so late in the season and both clubs in battles of their own, it’s important they concentrate on the task at hand.
Whilst saying that, it does seem a bit suspicious how this move came about and if there’s a world where the Shots go down and the Linnets go up, Kings Lynn will have the last laugh.
