By Brian Bennett

Ashington’s assistant manager Liam McIvor is hoping that the Colliers’ 3-2 victory over Newton Aycliffe on Tuesday night will be the first in a positive run of results as they look to escape from the clutches of the bottom four in the East Division of the Northern Premier League.

The Colliers secured the win in a five goal thriller in County Durham – with resolute defending ensuring that they brought all three points back to Wansbeck.

A delighted McIvor said: “We know we have got a good team but it’s just trying to give them the confidence to perform. Sometimes when you are in the kind of rut which we have been on, you’ve got to find a way of winning. We’ve done that tonight with every one of the players getting in the trenches – and we’ve got a great result on what was a fantastic away day.”

Ashington went 2-0 up inside the first 20 minutes through skipper Wilson Kneeshaw and Michael Ndiweni before Josh Gilchrist added a third on the stroke of half time.

McIvor added: “We told Michael (Ndiweni) to play on the centre half because the pace of the ball on the zippy pitch was always going to take it away from the defender’s toes. With the little bit of pace which Michael has got, it was trying to get him to anticipate that – and it worked because it led to Aycliffe making mistakes. After Wilson had scored early for us, the second goal was a gift and the third – after a crossfield ball had been worked between Josh (Gilchrist) and Archie (Small) – came at a great time.”

He continued: “In the second half it was one way traffic but I thought we defended very well. We were disappointed to give away the two goals because we should be doing better in those situations. However, we couldn’t have asked any more from the lads tonight and now we need to start climbing up the league table.”