By Brian Bennett
Ashington joint head coach Andy Coyles was full of praise for his squad on Tuesday night after they registered their first win in the Northern Premier League East Division with a fabulous 2-1 result over previously unbeaten Garforth Town.
A beaming Coyles said afterwards: “It was our first league victory after four games but we’ve had an extremely bad case of luck regarding injuries. They haven’t been excuses but have been mentioned just to make the supporters aware of just how tough it has been. Over the last two to three games it has been physically and mentally challenging for the players but they have come here tonight, away from home and have put on a fantastic performance. Every game so far this season we have drawn reference to good spells but then we have let ourselves down – but not at any point in tonight’s game did the lads let themselves down. They were immense and thoroughly deserved their win.”
He continued: “We were again dominant in possession in spells in the first half where we had a lot of the ball but we just didn’t get our shots off – and that’s been a common theme over the last few weeks. The team talk at half time was quite an easy one – to maintain possession; to keep manipulating the ball but to get shots off on goal. We set numerous players targets in terms of how many shots we expected from them throughout the second half and it just goes to show what happens when you shoot and you let loose.”
The result lifted Ashington off the bottom of the table but Coyles said: “I deliberately haven’t looked at the league table. I may do that 10-12 games in. Garforth hadn’t lost in the league before tonight and they have played some really difficult teams. They had won two and drawn two so the fact that we’ve come away from home, lads have ‘knocked the pan in’ through the day from 9-5pm then travelled down here a couple of hours and put on that type of performance all I can say is a huge, huge well done to them.”
The Colliers are without a game on Saturday and Coyles added: “We’ll be training on Thursday and Saturday preparing for our home game against Bradford Park Avenue on Tuesday (September 10). Again we have got to manage the load because people have got to appreciate what the lads are putting their bodies through. There are lads who are playing through quite significant injuries. That’s just because of where we are at – but it also shows how much respect these lads have got for the football club.”