1923-24 Season
August the 25th 1923 heralded the start of another campaign and another wretched start of the Colliers – 0-4 at Wrexham before a rain soaked crowd of 4,000. Although a win at home to newly elected Doncaster Rovers followed, the Colliers went down in the return game against the Welshman, who completed an early double of the Colliers winning 0-2 at Portland Park, witnessed by a crowd of 6,300. It began to look as if the team were going to struggle on the field again after a defeat at Doncaster by a 2-1 scoreline and a draw at Wigan. Even the reserve side were finding things difficult as they went down at home to Spen Black and White in a Northern Alliance fixture infront of a crowd of 2,500, yet the previous year they had remained unbeaten at home. Things began to look up though as the Colliers thrashed Wigan in the return game 3-0 at Portland Park, then defeated North east rivals Durham City 3-2 with a crowd of 5,800 in attendance. This was followed by Ashington’s first away win of the season at Crewe by 3-1, with the Colliers completing the double a week later as Crew were demolished 3-0 at Portland Park – this being Ashington’s fourth straight win! Although Accrington Stanley held the high flying Colliers to a draw at Portland Park, they couldn’t cope with the in-form Colliers on their patch, going down by a single goal.
November began with the Colliers demolishing Halifax Town 4-0 at Portland Park, Ashington’s 8th League game unbeaten putting the Colliers into top spot in the league. However, this joy was short lived as the Colliers went down to a heavy 3-0 defeat at the Shay in the return fixture, followed by a home defeat against Rotherham United, as the Yorkshire side came away from Portland Park with a 2-1 win, witnessed by 5,358.
With League form dipping, Ashington had FA Cup action to switch their attention to with a Fourth Qualifying Round match against Bishop Auckland – complete with special train and motor parties of supporters visiting Portland Park to see the Colliers win 2-0, the attendance being 4,735. Cumbrian side Carlisle United were the next victims in the 5th Qualifier – before a 4,753 gate, with the Colliers again winning by a 2-0 scoreline. In the 6th Qualifying Round Ashington had another home draw with local rivals Hartlepools United the opposition. The ‘Pools’ provided much stiffer opposition, although the Colliers ran out 2-1 winners with a crowd of 6,540 at Portland Park. This meant Ashington had reached the FA Cup First Round (equivalent to the Third Round today). The draw had the town buzzing as the Colliers were paired against the mighty Aston Villa in what was described as a ‘David and Goliath’ clash at Portland Park.
Between these Cup matches Ashington had mixed fortunes in the League Fixtures. After the defeat at home to Rotherham, the Colliers form had improved again with 3 straight wins including a1-0 win at home to Grimsby Town, a 5-0 hiding of newly elected New Brighton at Portland Park and an entertaining 4-2 win away at Tranmere Rovers. Ashington then drew at New Brighton before going down 1-0 at high flying Wolves. New years day in 1924 saw the Colliers victorious again at Portland Park, with Walsall the latest victims, going down 3-1. One week before the ‘big one’ and before a massive crowd of 8,824, Ashington were thrashed 7-1 by Champions elect Wolverhampton Wanderers, although a twenty minute injury to Henderson had virtually reduced the Colliers to ten men.
To make sure everyone attending to Aston Villa game had a good view, major work was done to the stadium to improve the ground. Crush barriers were installed on the terracing with a capacity crowd of over 20,000 possible.
On the match day ten special trains arrived from the Alnwick area in the North, whilst there were thirty constables, plus mounted police on duty as opposed to the normal six officers.
Heavy snow had fallen all week and there was a distinct possibility that game would be called off, but with thaw on the day the pitch had become muddy but playable. Crowds started to gather at the ground before midday and there was an air on intense excitement for this, without doubt, the Colliers biggest game. At the final Count the attendance was a disappointing 11,837 with gate receipts of £806-10s-0d. This wasn’t helped by many local pit workers who were not able to attend because of work, as well as the very poor weather.
Many other miners came straight from work with most of the locals displaying black & white rosettes.
Ashington’s starting XI for the FA Cup match was:
Hoffman, Thompson , Page, Tubb, Price, Pigg, Kidd, Gardner, Robertson, Watson, Liverick.
Villa soon took the lead, but the Colliers equalised thanks to a Robertson goal met by a loud outburst of cheering. But level terms with their lofty opponents was short-lived, and handicapped by an early injury to the home player, Price, the Colliers were eventually overwhelmed with a final score of:
Ashington 1 Aston Villa 5
Ashington went down by one goal at Rochdale in the next game, but beat the same side at Portland Park one week later by the same scoreline with 5,400 attending, a big drop from the previous attendance of over 11,000. The Colliers then went down 0-2 at Southport, but again managed to return the favour at Portland Park as the Colliers ran out 2-0 winners with 3,500 in attendance. Ashington were away at Darlington one week later going down by the odd goal in five in the derby game with the Colliers defeating Darlington on home soil 7 days later in another tight game, Ashington winning 2-1 with a crowd of 5,800 at Portland Park. That was followed by a 2-0 home win against Barrow, a draw in Cumbria against the same side a narrow 2-1 win against Lincoln City. After that win, the Colliers went 5 matches without a win including two 4-0 defeats at Grimsby Town and local rivals Durham City. The bad run was ended by a 1-0 win at home to Bradford Park Avenue and one week later 4,100 saw the Colliers play out a 0-0 draw with local rivals Hartlepools United. That was followed by a 1-3 defeat at Bradford PA and a draw at Walsall before the Colliers were victorious at Hartlepools, winning 1-0 away from home. Ashington’s last home game of the season ended with a 1-1 draw against Chesterfield, with the Colliers going down 0-2 away to the same side on the final day of the season.
Ashington had remained undefeated at home since the FA Cup game against Aston Villa, but poor away form had meant only a final position of eighth in the table, although this was a vast improvement on the previous season, attendances were only slightly better than the previous season meaning the Directors still had problems.
Season highlights included a fantastic cup run ending with defeat to the mighty Aston Villa; derby wins against Darlington, Hartlepools United and Durham City and a 5-0 win at home to New Brighton. After defeating the Colliers 5-1 at Portland Park in the FA Cup First Round, Aston Villa had went on a fantastic run of their own, reaching the final without conceding a goal after visiting Portland Park, but met their match with Newcastle United defeating the Villa 2-0 at Wembley.
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