By Brian Bennett

Wilson Kneeshaw was named as the ‘Player of the match’ in Ashington’s 4-0 success over Winterton Rangers on Saturday – but the striker brushed the individual accolade to one side insisting that the overriding aspect was helping his side to a crucial victory.

Kneeshaw netted one goal and claimed three assists but he was also thwarted on several occasions by home ‘keeper Nathan Popple: “Obviously I have scored one and have assisted so I’ve helped the team,” he said, “I was disappointed that I didn’t get a couple more but the main thing today was coming away with the three points in what was a good performance. Now we can hopefully kick on and start moving up the table.”

For Darlington-born Kneeshaw, after receiving a pass from Nathan Buddle, his lay off which led to the opening goal from Connor Thomson took him back to his time with Blyth Spartans and Gateshead: “The three of us just linked really well,” he said, “I’ve known Connor from my days with him at Blyth and Gateshead so I know his game and what he’s about as a player – and the same goes for Nathan. I was happy for Connor to get off the mark and start his loan spell at Ashington with an excellent performance. He’s come in and brought something to the team straight away and obviously if I can assist and help with that then it’s really good.”

The 29 year old admitted that he has benefited by a change in mentality: “For my goal I was happy with the finish,” he said, “I changed my mentality over the past couple of weeks not to get down with myself because its been easy to do that in the past so I’ve been really trying to focus if sometimes things don’t go my way. Reflecting now I can look back on today’s game and say I probably should have scored in the first period but I got one in the second half – a left footer into the bottom corner – so I can’t complain.”