By Brian Bennett
Ashington manager Nick Gray said he was disappointed for the players after Tuesday night’s 3-2 defeat against Pontefract Collieries at Woodhorn Lane.
However the boss added that there are reasons why the Colliers have extended their losing streak under his leadership.
After taking the lead through Craig Spooner, Ashington trailed 3-1 at the interval before Spooner’s rasping effort ten minutes inside the second period made for a grandstand finish.
A clearly frustrated Gray said afterwards: “I’m disappointed for the lads but there are reasons why we have lost the three games since I took over. If we are learning then great but out of the three performances I thought we did better tonight. We gave them (Pontefract) opportunities in the first half and something to hold onto. How we gave the goals away was unacceptable and I’d be disappointed to give them away at any level.
Pontefract won the game with their first half showing and we gave ourselves a mountain to climb in the second period. At this level, they have been manlier than us whereas we’ve been too nice and too cute. We got bullied here and pushed off there and you’ve got to stand up and be counted.”
He continued: “The message to the lads at half time was to stop getting bullied and to take a bit of responsibility on the pitch. Its men’s football and first half we were just bullied – and you can’t let it happen at this level. The second half we gave it a go but the bottom line is the result and another defeat. There were some good performances again and the players had to will to win but they’ve got to be more street wise. I cannot fault the effort from the lads but we’ve been done by a first half performance where we gave poor goals away – after getting a good start by the way. We put the ball in the right area and scored from it and although it may have been a scrappy goal, I’ll take them all day. At 3-1 down at half time we keep saying about belief – and Craig Spooner has then scored a great goal – but we have got to be much stronger than that as a unit.”
Ashington now head to face North Ferriby on Saturday followed by a trip to Carlton Town on Tuesday and Gray added: “The games in this league are all tough – but equally they are all winnable. I know this league and with no disrespect to the opposition, there are some decent teams but no-one to fear. I just think we’ve got to have a bit more nous about ourselves as to how we go about things. We are shy in areas and we know that but things don’t happen overnight and we’ve just got to take some positives.”