By Brian Bennett | Photo: Ian Brodie

Ashington FC’s assistant manager Andy Coyles made it back to back promotions on Saturday when the Colliers brushed aside Northern Premier League West Division side Glossop North End 3-0 in the Inter step play off final.

At the same stage a year ago, Coyles who was manager of Ebac Northern League outfit Consett, successfully masterminded the Steelmen’s victory over Histon in Cambridgeshire.

Coyles said on Saturday night: “There’s something unbelievable about getting promoted via the play offs – it’s a totally different feeling to winning the league. Leading up to today, we made it hard for ourselves but at the end of the day, the objective at the start of the season for Ashington was to get promoted. So whether we won it outright or did it via the play offs doesn’t matter. However after travelling three hours from Ashington to play the game in Derbyshire, there’s no better feeling.”

As for the players, Coyles added: “They had a job to do and they did it in full. We said to them before the game ‘come back into the dressing rooms after the final whistle with no regrets – and not one of them had any (regrets) and that’s all you can ask for. We did what we needed to do. We managed the game from minute one to minute 93 and the lads were exceptional.”

Coyles described the away support as being outstanding: “You’d have thought that we were at home,” he said, “The support was outstanding. The fans were loud throughout; they sang for the entire 90 minutes and when we scored, the noise just gave the lads a bit of a buzz. They were incredible and were our 12^th, 13^th, 14^th and 15^th man today – 1000 per cent.”