By Brian Bennett
Delighted after his side had collected three precious points with a 1-0 victory after a pulsating non-stop encounter against Grimsby Borough on Wednesday night, Ashington manager Nick Gray has challenged his players to perform even better.
On what eventually turned out to be a perfect evening for football – following a pre match scare as fog hovered around the ground less than three hours before kick-off – a goal in the dying embers of the first half by Craig Spooner decided the outcome at the Bradley Football Development Centre.
The win lifted the Colliers up to 15th place in the table and gave them a bit of breathing space – but it remains very tight at the foot of the East Division table. Sheffield are on the bottom with 15 points then the next seven clubs are separated by only four points.
Consequently it came as no surprise when Gray said afterwards: “Tonight’s clash at Grimsby was the start of an important passage for us where we had five of our next seven games on the road – so we needed to get points on the board away from home and set ourselves some targets. It’s never easy to travel this kind of a distance – a round trip of over 300 miles – on a Wednesday night but credit to the lads. They arrived at the ground; were focussed and to be fair I thought they put in a good shift all over the pitch.”
He continued: “It was a great three points tonight but can we go and get something from our trip to Sherwood on Saturday because that’s what we have got to do – get points from teams who are in and around us. We’ll happily take the win and the plaudits tonight but we know we can challenge ourselves to do even better with the ball.”
Reflecting on the first half Gray said: “The opening half was nip and tuck. I thought both teams gave the ball away cheaply in and out of possession with Grimsby looking dangerous when we gave the ball away and vice versa. At 0-0, we made some great interceptions from crosses which came into our box and we defended as a unit. I thought we grew into the game and got our noses in front with a goal by Craig Spooner which came out of nothing. He (Spooner) chases lost causes – and tonight he’s got his rewards! Once you go ahead, you’ve always got something to hold onto and second half I thought Spooner then Ryan Donaldson could have scored a second goal to be fair but both missed great opportunities. Craig has said to me that the ball took a bobble – and I’ll take his word on that – but at 1-0, it was going through my mind ‘are we going to rue those chances?’
He added: “Second half it was a case of do we stick or twist and do we bring subs on with fresh legs? It was also about game management and I thought we did that really well and can’t remember our goalkeeper Dan Staples having to make a save. We’ve been playing a certain way and having the lion’s share of possession in games but not doing a great deal with the ball so we changed our shape. I thought we had someone up there (Craig Spooner) and the switch worked tonight – if it hadn’t then I would have taken it on the chin. Formations don’t win games of football – footballers do – and man for man I thought we had more players who were better than the opposition player. Don’t get me wrong, Grimsby have got some good players but we kept them quiet. They are a good side who attack with pace on the counter attack but I thought we dealt with it well and our defending was outstanding. Scott Lowery, Jordan Summerly, Ben Williams and Andrew Cartwright all did their jobs – but the defending came from the front.”
Meanwhile Ryan Donaldson made his debut playing up front alongside Spooner and Gray concluded: “I thought Ryan had a good debut. He showed his experience and he’ll get better for us.”