On Tuesday night, Jack Barham made his 100th appearance for Aldershot Town and wrote himself into the Club’s history as our latest Shots Centurion.
The striker joined the Shots in March 2023 from Maidstone United on an undisclosed fee and made 10 appearances as he helped his new side escape relegation.
He made his debut coming off the bench in a 1-1 draw away at Maidenhead United and he scored his first Shots goal in a 3-3 draw with Eastleigh in Tommy Widdrington’s second game in charge.
Barham did enough to impress his new boss and started the first game of the 23/24 season, getting off to the best possible start by scoring The Shots’ first competitive goal of the season in the 13th minute of our 5-2 win over Oxford City.
He quickly formed an exciting and dynamic three-way partnership with Lorent Tolaj and Josh Stokes and though he wasn’t always the one scoring the goals early in the season, he was constantly involved in the build-up play, if not getting assists.
When he did score though, he scored more as braces against Chesterfield and Maidenhead United preceded what was quite probably his finest day in an Aldershot shirt: Swindon Town (A).
In just the first four minutes, Barham had scored twice to put the Shots ahead against League Two side, Swindon Town, in the Emirates FA Cup First Round. He then completed his hat-trick and his side’s rout with our seventh goal of the afternoon and in the process taking home an FA Cup matchball and achieving national notoriety.
Barham scored in away trips to Rochdale and Bromley before he once again proved to be Aldershot’s Cup hero in the Isuzu FA Trophy Third Round against Eastleigh. Scoring in the 2-2 draw during 90 minutes, Barham then stepped up to take the winning penalty and send his side through to the next round. Batman to the rescue, ey Jack.
He was blessed with a chant quite early on by a fanbase that took quickly to his high energy and infectious personality and his exploits in the FA Cup and FA Trophy certainly proved he was living up to his tag of ‘Super Jack Barham’.
And he did what any Shots player needs to do to endear them further into the hearts of our supporters as he scored the third goal in a 3-2 win away to Woking on New Year’s Day, 2024.
Next up, Barham started the Shots 4-1 defeat to Championship side West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns – a fantastic occasion despite the defeat in front of almost 5000 travelling Shots fans to end what had been a brilliant cup run he had played such a key role in.
He chipped in with goals against Rochdale, again, and Wealdstone, but unfortunately suffered an injury in a win over Barnet at the EBB Stadium and begun a period away from first-team action as the season drew to a close. He returned to action just before the end of the season and finished the campaign with 15 goals in 42 appearances in all competitions.
Now moving into his third season as a Shot, Barham missed some of the 24/25 pre-season with injury and started the first four games of the season on the bench. On his first start, however, he bagged his first goal of the season in a 3-2 defeat to Tamworth.
His next goal didn’t come until we played against Eastleigh at home (an opponent Jack seemingly loves scoring against for the Shots!) and this seemed to reignite his goalscoring confidence as a couple of weeks later he scored another important Emirates FA Cup goal for the Shots as he put us in front away to Bradford City.
More goals followed in away trips to Gateshead, Dagenham & Redbridge and Solihull Moors until he finally scored again at the EBB Stadium against FC Halifax Town just before Christmas.
Barham has chipped in with three more goals so far this season in the return games against Tamworth and Gateshead, as well as our Isuzu FA Trophy Fifth Round win over Boreham Wood, helping him to already reach another double-figure goal tally already.
And on Tuesday night, Barham completed his century of appearances for Aldershot Town Football Club in a 3-1 win over Wealdstone. Congratulations, Jack – here’s to many more games and goals in the red and blue!
