By Tony Alvarez

As regular readers will know both myself and Laurie picked a side to follow in the Carling Cup from the first round, if they lost we would follow the team that beat them until they lost and so on.

 I pickedAldershotTowndue to the Hampshire side having the glamour tie of the round away at West Ham United and also because I have a decent knowledge of the club.

Of course they won the game at Upton Park 2-1 thanks to goals from Luke Guttridge and Danny Hylton.

Next was a home tie against League One side Carlisle United where the Shots triumphed 2-0 thanks to a own goal and a Michael Rankine strike.

This win put Aldershot into the third round where a potentially lucrative tie against a big side was possible, the Shots drew League One sideRochdaleat home.

Maybe not the tie the club would of hoped for but it presented a great opportunity to progress to round 4, Aldershot were 2-1 victors another Carling Cup goal for Michael Rankine was followed by another Carling Cup winner from Danny Hylton.

Aldershot were then drawn in this huge glamour tie against Premier League  ChampionsManchesterUnited however since the draw things have taken a turn for the worse for Dean Holdsworths men.

Since the draw the club had suffered defeat for five fixtures on the bounce in all competitions losing out againstCrawley, Accrington Stanley, Oxford United, Macclesfield and Barnet before they finally put the bad run to an end with an emphatic 5-2 victory away at Dagenham and Redbridge on Saturday.

Manager Dean Holdsworth has given himself a selection headache ahead of probably the biggest tie inAldershot’s history as he rested many first team players for the trip to Dagenham with United in mind and his side produced the best performance they have given in the past month or so.

Amongst the rested were top goal scorer and seemingly star man at the moment Danny Hylton and Captain Ben Herd.

Whilst The Shots had a joyful weekend picking up their first points since September United had a torrid one, a 6-1 defeat at home to not only their biggest rivals in terms of location but also in terms of for honours this season.

It was thought that Manager Sir Alex Ferguson would field a mixture of fringe and youth players at Aldershot’s EBB Stadium similar to the side they fielded in the previous round atElland RoadagainstLeeds.

However after the embarrassment they suffered at the hands of their “noisy neighbours” I now thinkFergusonwill field a somewhat stronger side to shake off the memory of the defeat and also to bring some of his stars down to earth.

Realistically I do not give Aldershot a chance of progressing to the next round but they can make it difficult for their illustrious opponents, the ground will be pack with a hostile atmosphere that I cannot wait to be part of, the players will scrap for every ball and aim to impress, the game is being shown live on Sky Sports and its also a chance for every player to put himself in the shop window and get noticed by other sides.

If I were to put money on this game I would put money on a 3-1 win for the Premier League side, as I said I don’t think it will be easy but I also cannot see it being the tightest of games.

What are your thoughts? Have Aldershot got a chance? Has Holdsworth given himself a selection headache? What is your result prediction leave a comment and let us know your thoughts

If you are on Twitter please follow us @sfts1. I will aim to tweet about all the major incident live during the game.