Photo: Ian Brodie
By Brian Bennett
Ashington FC’s Lewis Suddick netted the winner against his former club Bishop Auckland on Saturday as the Colliers wrapped up a 2-1 victory at The dwmedia Stadium.
It was Suddick’s third goal in five matches since he put pen to paper for Ian Skinner’s side and significantly was the first which resulted in the Wansbeck side picking up points after his previous strikes came in the 2-1 defeats – and consecutive matches – against Sunderland Ryhope CW (on his debut) and North Shields.
But whilst he was delighted to score what proved to be the decisive goal midway through the second half, North Shields-born Suddick, who lives in the town, declared that the only thing which mattered was the result: “It was a really good feeling to score and especially the winning goal – but the most important thing was for us to get back to winning ways,” he said, “everyone in the dressing room knows the quality we have got even though some of our recent results haven’t really reflected that.”
The 24 year old – a PE teacher – described his strike: “I caught the ball lovely and as soon as it left my foot I knew it was going in,” he added, “I had a few chances today so I’m really glad that one of them went into the back of the net – and luckily for me it was the winner!”
Suddick was impressed with the display from Ashington after Matty Waters had opened the scoring for Bishop Auckland with an outrageous strike: “They (Bishop Auckland) scored a really good goal and sometimes you’ve just got to hold your hands up, and to be fair to the lad (Matty Waters) he’s hit an absolute worldy,” said Suddick, “but what our supporters saw from us today was a more disciplined performance without the ball and I thought we did really well in terms of being harder to break down and finding the right balance between staying tight and keeping their chances down to a minimum whilst we played some really expanse football at times which culminated in two really good goals.”
Suddick also believes Ashington have learned quickly: “The previous week at Whickham, we were 3-2 up and should have seen the game out,” he said, “I think we have learned from that with the way we ‘managed’ the game today in the last 10-15 minutes. We really killed the game off and made it hard for them (Bishop Auckland) to get back into it so it was a more mature performance from everybody.” Ashington FC boss Ian Skinner said: “Lewis (Suddick) has been great since he came to the club. I knew he would want to do really well against his former club and he’s popped up with what turned out to be the winner. Lewis has got real quality and is technically very, very good. He’s chipped in with goals – that’s three in five matches – so you can’t argue with his goals per game ratio. I was pleased he scored today and I think he was too – judging by his celebration! Lewis is somebody who we’ll be looking to try and pin down long term – because he’s also the type of player that we’ll be looking to try and build the side around.”