By Brian Bennett
Ashington joint head coach Andy Coyles was naturally delighted after his side had knocked out Bishop Auckland in their Emirates FA Cup replay at Heritage Park on Tuesday night.
The Colliers won 2-1 after extra time in another pulsating game.
After Jay Errington had fired the Wansbeck side in front, substitute Brandon Holdsworth equalised for Bishop Auckland with 20 minutes of normal time remaining.
The game went to an additional period of 30 minutes and a special effort from Cam Gascoigne shortly before the end sent Ashington through.
Coyles said afterwards: “First of all, we’re delighted for the lads because it’s been three really gruelling games against Bishop Auckland. I think there was only a period of about 40 minutes where we let ourselves down – other than that, we have been the better team. Tonight for the duration of the game including extra time, we were the better side and deserved to go through. I thought we were resilient when we needed to be and although a few things went against us our attitude remained the same. We also scored two great goals. Young Jay Errington is only 20 but he netted one of the best goals I’ve seen in the last few years and then Cam Gascoigne has backed that up with another beauty.”
He continued: “It was a huge team effort tonight and it needs to be documented about how many players we have had unavailable over the past eight days. Seven have been out through injury or absence – so it shows the strength and depth of the squad and if we can get everyone back fit, then it’s going to cause the management team plenty of headaches! When they (Bishop Auckland) equalised at 1-1, I thought ‘here we go again’ – but we’ve learned from our mistakes and having been in front for so long, our attitude and determination to not fold under pressure was excellent. We just kept going and the boys need applauding for their fitness levels. At this moment in time in the season they are exceptional and you can see that when we are finishing games the stronger team. It certainly shows and it allowed us to go in front tonight with the last couple of minutes remaining.”
He concluded: “Cam (Gascoigne) will get all of the plaudits but you’ve got to take into account that there was some serious last ditch defending in those final minutes and the back line, including the goalkeeper have got to take a lot of credit.”