By Brian Bennett

Ashington FC manager Ian Skinner has told his players to soak up the current euphoria which is reverberating around the Woodhorn Lane club – until they report back for training on Thursday night!

The whole club were buzzing on Tuesday night after stunning goals from Dan Maguire, Craig Spooner and substitute Adam Johnson had seen the Colliers deliver a knock out blow against Ashton United in their Emirates FA Cup first qualifying round replay.

However Skinner said: “The mood is fantastic and rightly so – but the lads will be in for training again on Thursday. There are no nights off in my regime and we’ll be preparing for our league clash away to West Auckland on Saturday.”

He continued: “We didn’t alter too much tonight. We had a couple of enforced changes – with Robbie Dale dropping out through injury but we took a little bit of a gamble by playing Dean Briggs. Ben Sampson had to move inside (into midfield) and Andrew Cartwright came back in on the right. But again I’m delighted for the club as a whole because the win has brought a few quid into the coffers and also attracted some good publicity.”

For Saturday’s trip to the Wanted Stadium, Dale is rated doubtful whilst Ben Harmison, Lewis Suddick, Kyle Hayes, Ben Sampson and Jamie Hanson are unavailable.