Aldershot Town supporter Will Brown on the sadness but inevitability of losing 'special player', forward Bernard Mensah, to Bristol Rovers...

Inevitability can be boiled down to a collection of certainties. Life has a solid framework that we follow, rarely strafing from the centre line. The usual death and taxes come flying through the doors first, joined closely by heartbreak or, their close relative, knowing a person who puts milk in before removing the teabag. We learn to accept these inevitabilities because there is no halting them.

The news of Bernard Mensah leaving Aldershot Town to take up a spot at League One Bristol Rovers was one such inevitability.

It was predictable that a player who stood out alongside Idris Kanu and Kundai Benyu last season joins that pair in League One at their respective clubs Peterborough United and Oldham Athletic. Nonetheless, losing a player that gave us unforgettable memories and some of the biggest smiles on supporters’ faces for half a decade was always going to be a mixing pot of sadness and equal parts future nostalgia.

That trio of Benyu, Kanu and Mensah not only seemed to work symbiotically at the back of last season to yank us into the play-offs, but they looked happy to be doing it in our red and blue.

If we’re pointing out inevitabilities, Benyu and Kanu leaving would’ve been higher than buses running late. Mensah was the next victim of Gary Waddock’s unwavering ability to craft sheet metal into gold.

The result was a man, a player and a character that gave this Aldershot team a personality that finally engaged with the fans. Jake Gallagher and Callum Reynolds may have pioneered that relationship to the fans but it’s Mensah who added the biggest of grins, the slinkiest of legs and the most assured of touches to this Aldershot team.

The interaction with fans had been lacking from 2013 all the way through until 2016 – save for a few magical moments – before Waddock took control.

Finding, unearthing and breeding young talent is precisely what he does best. Mensah is a special player that seems to save his most daring brilliance when it’s needed, when ideas are beginning to run out.

Select from York City away when he burst through one-on-one to score, the Play-Off Semi Final when something godly happened to his right foot and brought five minutes of pure, gut-wrenching hope to the tie, and last, but not least, his whipped, bent and wicked goal away to Bromley earlier in the season, he had a knack of providing something useful or mind-blowing with the ball at his feet.

After recovering from his pre-season injury, he immediately looked mature; like he was pre-emptively preparing us for his departure. His running was smarter, his pace was controlled but still rapid and he looked so composed on the ball, he may have started rivalling Manny Oyeleke.

Bristol Rovers will provide Mensah with the tools to make his mark on the game at a higher level, something we should never try to stop. His aspirations of playing for Ghana may not come initially, but this step up will certainly tip toe him closer to the frame of the Black Stars’ picture. His future is not inevitable anymore.