By Brian Bennett | Photo: Ian Brodie
Ashington got their new campaign in the NPL East Division underway on Saturday with a 1-1 draw against Ossett United in West Yorkshire – but joint head coach Andy Coyles said afterwards that the result ‘feels like a loss’ after Jamie Sharman had netted a late equaliser for the home side.
Jay Errington fired the Colliers ahead just shy of the midway point in the first period and the Wansbeck side – who defended well – held onto the lead until the second minute of time added on at the end of the second period: “As a group we are all frustrated because it feels like a loss,” said Coyles, “At the end of the day we were in control for large parts of the game even though I didn’t think we were at our best today which was acknowledged and accepted as a whole in the changing room. At times we ended up playing their game and fighting their battle. First half we got the goal and although we weren’t firing on all cylinders in the second half, it was a much improved performance. We had more passages of play and more time on the ball but we just didn’t manage the game towards the end which we needed to do.”
Coyles continued: “Listen, this was our first league game of the season and we’ve taken a point on the road and we’ll take the positives out of it. There were a couple of niggles towards the finish with injuries and we’ve had to take a few people off but at the end of the day, we’ll go away and learn from our mistakes and we’ll hopefully put on a more improved performance on Tuesday night (against Bishop Auckland at home).
Coyles added that there is much more to come from the squad: “We’re learning as a group,” he added, “People have got to bear in mind that some of the lads have only joined us over the last two or three weeks and it takes time to gel as a group which will come. We’ve got to take into account that we had a great chance at 1-0 with a one on one and if we had scored then it would have sealed the game for us. However, you’ve got to take the rough with the smooth. We gave a good account of ourselves by playing some good football and there are still plenty of opportunities to improve moving forwards.”