By Brian Bennett | Photo: Ian Brodie

Ashington FC manager Ian Skinner slammed his sides’ defending and delivered a blunt message following their 4-0 defeat against Sheffield FC on Tuesday night.

The reverse in Dronfield at the Home of Football Stadium saw the Colliers slide to a third consecutive defeat whilst also conceding eight goals in two matches and the boss didn’t hold back in his postmatch thoughts: “The simple fact is we will not win games of football if we defend like we have done in the last two – end of.”

He continued: “It was a similar theme to Saturday’s defeat against Newton Ayclffe in terms of we defended really poorly as a team. The game started really bright and quite open to be honest. They (Sheffield) looked quite dangerous and we looked very dangerous going forward but then we conceded a really poor first goal to go behind against a team who haven’t been ahead in games too often this season and it gave them a little bit of confidence and something to hang onto. I just thought we looked really good getting into the final third with Wilson Kneeshaw and Connor Thomson running at them and Oli Thompson getting in high, wide and left but again we were just a little bit wasteful in and around the final third. Then we conceded a really poor second goal.”

He added: “Even at half time, I still thought we would score in the game because of the amount of entries we had into the attacking third and if Connor Thomson’s shot had gone in to make it 2-1 instead of hitting the post, it would have changed the game. We got a warning for the third goal where the corner was headed off the line by Karl Ross then the resulting corner was identical only this time they scored. You know things aren’t quite going your way when they get a fourth with an own goal.”