By Brian Bennett
Ashington FC’s left sided player Luke Salmon emerged from the dressing rooms after the 3-3 draw against Billingham Town on Saturday and helped to clear up the ‘incident’ which occurred with only seconds of the contest remaining by emphatically stating that the whole of the ball had not crossed the line when he made his last ditch clearance.
The Bedford Terrace side thought they had scored a dramatic winner until Salmon got back to steer the ball away to safety.
The 30 year old said: “I’ve got a habit of going back onto the line all the time – our ‘keeper Adam McHugh knows I do that – and obviously it’s worked today as I got the ball away. It was very close – but it wasn’t a goal.”
North Shields-born Salmon added that he came off the Bedford Terrace pitch ‘upset’ following the result.
Salmon scored the second goal for the Colliers – but was also involved in Billingham’s equaliser (2-2) after he had back-heeled the ball inside the Ashington area: “We should have won but personally I came off more upset than thinking I had had a good game,” he added. “The lads are disappointed with a draw because they know we are a better side than what we showed.”
When Salmon netted in the 11th minute, the goal put the Colliers into a commanding 2-0 lead which they let slip with the Teessiders going ahead 3-2 early in the second half before substitute Jordan Lashley levelled: “lt’s always good to score,” he said, “I was up in the box and Jamie (Hanson) just tried to repeat his first goal. I anticipated seeing the ‘keeper (Jack Norton) parry the ball away and it bounced in front of me and I just finished it.” Meanwhile Salmon is hoping to be in the squad on Tuesday night when Ashington face Guisborough Town in the quarter final of the Division One Cup at The dwmedia Stadium: “We got annihilated by Guisborough recently in the league match but it’s another game on Tuesday,” he said, “It’s good to still be in a cup competition and it makes our season a bit more exciting. Our crowd are always class so it’ll be great to have them behind us. Week in week out they always spur us on and I’m looking forward to it.”