By Brian Bennett
Ashington completed their third warm up game of pre season with a 2-1 win over Whitley Bay at Hillheads on Tuesday night.
The victory prompted joint head coach Richie Hill to speak highly of the challenge from the coast outfit: “It was an excellent work out and I think both clubs will have gained a lot from it,” he said afterwards, “We needed this game to get some minutes into certain players who had been away on holiday or recovering from injury and it was a really lovely exercise where we were asking the lads to play in a certain way.”
He continued: “At times I thought we did some good things and our two goals were fantastic but it was just a little bit frustrating that we conceded a goal at the end. However, to be honest Whitley Bay were knocking on the door in the last couple of minutes and our ‘keeper Dan Staples made one very good save. It is something which we need to work on over the next three weeks to make sure it doesn’t happen in the games at the beginning of the season. Overall though, I was very pleased and I thought it was a really, really good challenge.”
Skipper Karl Ross put the Colliers ahead just before the half hour mark following an excellent move and low cross from Jordan Summerly.
On the hour, a defence splitting pass from Cyril Giroud created a one-on-one opportunity for Connor Thomson which he finished superbly well to double the lead.
Two minutes from time, the Seahorses pulled a goal back when former Ashington player Luke Parkinson netted with a header from a corner.