By Brian Bennett
It was perhaps ironic that with Bonfire night only a few days away Ashington found a spark of their own to light the blue touch paper which led to a 3-2 victory over Bridlington Town at Woodhorn Lane on Saturday.
For several weeks performances from the Colliers have been overshadowed by the lack of a cutting edge in the final third but on Saturday they found the answer – and it came from within!
Nick Gray moved Josh Gilchrist up front – and the recent acquisition from Dunston UTS certainly left an indelible mark on the game.
The 21 year old would have claimed any ‘Player of the match’ award as he smashed a hat-trick and the treble came after his side had twice gone behind in the contest.
Afterwards Gilchrist said: “I’m really delighted. It was a tough game and it wasn’t pretty – but when we were searching for our first three points its never going to be pretty. I was just happy to be in the right place at the right time to get the three goals. We went 1-0 then 2-1 down and got back into the game twice before taking a 3-2 lead and its important when you do get your noses in front to stay in front. We defended well, escaped with a late penalty which Bridlington missed but overall I thought we deserved to win today.”
He continued: “I’m really enjoying it – the two bosses (Nick Gray and Liam McIvor) are great whilst the fan base is incredible. The fans turn up in their numbers every week and make some good noise and that always helps you when you are fighting and you are under the cosh a little bit. When they cheer you on it just gives you that extra bit of energy.”
Gilchrist went through his three goals: “For the first, I saw Ryan (Wombwell) take the ball on his right foot and I’ve just peeled off the defender and left a bit of a gap and darted towards the near post,” he said, “Ryan has put the ball into a good area and the cross was that good that I didn’t need to do much – I just had to get a little flick on it and it went into the bottom corner. The second was the penalty. Craig Spooner fancied taking it but I wanted to have a go. I hit it well and sent the ‘keeper the wrong way.”
Gilchrist said the third was similar to his opener: “Craig (Spooner) got a bit of space down the right hand side and it was pretty much the same as my first where he’s whizzed the ball across the box and I ran between the two centre halves. Literally, I just had to open my hip up and guide it into the corner.”
He added: “We have got to take this forward now 100 per cent. The spirit in the changing room is good but it’s one of those situations where we’ll forget about it tomorrow and move onto the next game. Its only three points and in reality we are still down there at the bottom end of the table so we’ve got to keep picking up points – but there’s a long way to go.”
Wallsend-born and based Gilchrist had a special few words for the fans who gave the players a standing ovation as they left the pitch: “You can see how much it means to people,” he said, “The club is big and people pay week in week out to come and watch us so it’s important that we give them something back and if they are out having a few drinks tonight then they will taste that little bit sweeter.”