By Brian Bennett
Ashington’s assistant manager Liam McIvor described the win over Bridlington at Woodhorn Lane on Saturday as being ‘a massive three points’ and praised the players after a fruitful week.
The 3-2 success over the East Yorkshire outfit came after a 0-0 draw against Carlton in Nottingham on Tuesday and McIvor said: “The first points are always the hardest to put on the board and it’s been a good five days with four (points) out of six. We deserved the draw at Carlton – albeit with Ross Coombe making a great penalty save at the end – but we also deserved that little bit of luck. We were the better team but how many times have we said that already? The previous Saturday against North Ferriby it was the same story then second half we didn’t come out. We’ve got to be ‘on it’ for 90 minutes – we were on Tuesday and we were again today.”
However, the Colliers were 1-0 then 2-1 behind in the first half before hitting back and McIvor added: “Getting back twice was credit to the lads. If I’m honest since Nick (Gray) and myself took over I’ve never seen a team score a good goal against us. The first one today was kamikaze again whilst the second was another set piece where we looked vulnerable. In-between Josh Gilchrist has scored a great goal to level things up after a terrific move. It was five passes from the left to Josh putting the ball into the back of the net and it was simple but effective.”
He continued: “The second half was a battle. I wasn’t overly concerned about Bridlington because I didn’t think they created a lot and we defended very well as a team. We gave a penalty away in the last minute which would have been a killer for us if they had scored – and consequently it was a massive three points.”
McIvor had a special word for Gilchrist who was handed a striker’s role before kick off: “It was a great third goal by Josh to get his hat-trick which turned out to be the winner,” he said, “It was his first start up front and he’s scored three goals and you cannot ask any more from your centre forward.”
Ashington have no midweek fixture and McIvor added: “We’ve got to kick on from here. I’ve just said to the lads for them to ‘enjoy tonight’ but to keep their feet on the ground because we are still in the bottom four and the reality is we’ve got a big game away at Belper Town next Saturday.”