By Brian Bennett | Photo: Ian Brodie
It wasn’t the dream start which Nick Gray and his assistant Liam McIvor had wished for.
Ashington’s new management team – in the dugout for the first time – looked on as the Colliers spiralled to a fourth consecutive defeat on Saturday against Stocksbridge Park Steels.
However despite the reverse, Gray is hoping that it will end up being a lucky omen for the future as he explained: “To be fair, I lost the first game I had in charge at my former clubs Seaton Delaval, Morpeth Town and Whitley Bay and we did alright after that so there’s a positive.”
Dissecting the contest, he said: “I thought there wasn’t much in the game at all in the first half. For me it was like a game of chess with a bit of nerves from both sides but we didn’t get the ball down and our play was too slow at times. We won a lot of first balls and if we didn’t win them, I thought we won a lot of second balls. We put our bodies on the line and application and effort wise, we couldn’t have asked any more from the players for the whole game – and if as a management team you are getting that then that’s a starting point.”
He continued: “Second half, Stocksbridge started really bright and well but we weathered that. Then we got on top and we’ve had a good half a dozen entries into the final third but haven’t got players in the box or in the right areas; selected the right choice or had the right belief – and that’s probably a word (belief) which we are looking at. We made substitutes to freshen things up and that was nothing against the players who were on the pitch because I thought they were all magnificent. For the first goal when a team are struggling for a little bit of confidence it is always key and you could see that a little bit. We were in the game then after the second goal, you could see that everyone was deflated.”
He went on: “Apart from the first ten minutes of the second half, I thought we were the better side. However I said to the lads that it’s a new era and we’ve just got to get our first win and the sooner we get it then we’ll be on track. I’ve heard that we’ve missed Connor Thomson. You can’t change the past but you can look towards the future and that’s what we’ve got to do. I thought there were some good performances today and you could see at the end that the lads were gutted. It’s a starting point and we’ve now got a free midweek which will be good.”
Gray was adamant that Ashington should have ended with some reward: “It’s not the result we wanted but there were more positives than negatives and we now look forward to playing Brighouse away on Saturday which we know is a tough place to go,” he added, “However if we have the resilience which we had today and a little bit of luck we’ll be okay. This afternoon, it showed that goals change games and at the end I thought the scoreline flattered them (Stocksbridge) because overall I definitely thought we deserved a point but sometimes in football you don’t always get what you deserve.”