By Brian Bennett

The volume levels amongst supporters at Woodhorn Lane went up a few notches on
Saturday when Darren Lough scored a dramatic 97 th minute equaliser for Ashington
against Brighouse Town.

The goal was the final piece of action crammed into a pulsating encounter – in what was
the Colliers first game in the Northern Premier League for 55 years.

However, Lough played down the euphoria afterwards and said that whilst it was good
to open his account, the goal meant very little: “I don’t score many (goals) and I don’t get
myself in that situation very often,” he said, “but whilst it was nice (to score), it doesn’t
really mean much when we haven’t picked up three points from a game we should be
potentially winning.”

The Ashington-born defender – who said it was the first time he had played in a 4-4
draw – described his goal: “It was a long ball which got flicked on,” he commented, “I
touched it with my right foot and when I was going for the flick on, it came off the
defender’s arm. I appealed for a penalty but the ball dropped nicely onto my left foot. I
took another touch then drilled it – and fortunately it went into the bottom corner.”

Reflecting on the game where Ashington conceded three of the four goals from set
plays, the 33 year old – an operations manager at Metro Rod – added: “We have got to
be stronger at defending corners and need to sharpen up quickly. We’ve gone up a

league and the teams are more physical and know how to play. A lot of our lads have
played in this league and above and as a team we need to be stronger collectively; work
hard and clear our lines. We have got a lot of character in the squad and a lot of players
who are great on the ball and who can produce something out of nothing and we know
we are going to create opportunities and score goals. We have worked hard in pre
season to make sure that we get the defending side of things right but it has been one of
those days where there have been four errors and we have been punished for every
one.”