By Brian Bennett
Ashington manager Nick Gray received the perfect Christmas present from his players when the Colliers’ win over Heaton Stannington on Boxing Day lifted them out of the bottom four of the East Division of the Pitching In Northern Premier League.
At the time, the 3-1 victory made it three games unbeaten before the Wansbeck side went down to a single goal defeat at the hands of promotion chasing Dunston UTS just before the turn of the New Year. And whilst the boss is the first to admit that there is still plenty of hard work ahead, he said: “I think things have changed and Woodhorn Lane is a much happier place than it was a month ago when were down to ten men and lost 4-0 against Liversedge. I watched the Dunston game back and we did really well against them. I thought we had as many opportunities as they did and kept a very lively forward line – which they have – quiet. However when we got into the final third we just didn’t have enough to trouble UTS’s Dan Lowson who is a very good goalkeeper.”
Gray has stressed that he is striving for consistency within the whole of his squad: “Obviously you want to do as well as you can in the second half of the season but we’re in the position we are in for a reason and the word I’m looking for is consistency – we need more players to be consistent and we seem to be getting there,” he said, “We’ve got to make sure that we finish this season strongly and we’ll be hoping that we can get through to the final of the Newcastle Flooring Northumberland Senior Cup. On top of that, we’ve also got to plan and look ahead to next term.”
Meanwhile Gray is delighted with the progress made by full back Jordan Summerly as well as the return of goalkeeper Dan Staples. Summerly had a spell where he was ruled out for a few months with an injury whilst Staples has just reclaimed the number one jersey after serving a three match suspension: “Jordan is getting fitter and stronger,” added Gray, “I think he gives us balance on the left hand side and he’ll get even better with more games under his belt. We’ve also got competition in the goalkeeping department now and I thought Dan Staples had his best performance for the club under my management against Dunston UTS,”
The boss was disappointed that Saturday’s away game against Bishop Auckland was postponed due to a frozen pitch: “You want to get back into the swing of things as quickly as you can,” he said, “We had started to hit a bit of form and I was hoping it would continue but it wasn’t to be. However if there is any consolation it’s not too far a travel for what will be a midweek fixture.”
Ashington now prepare for their clash against Newton Aycliffe at Woodhorn Lane on Saturday (January 11) and Gray said: “We’ll be training twice this week ahead of the game and keeping our fingers crossed for a change in the weather. Aycliffe are a very good side so we will have to be at our best to get a result.”