By Brian Bennett
Ashington manager Nick Gray – understandably hurt after a 4-0 defeat on Tuesday night against Newton Aycliffe – nevertheless gave praise to the County Durham outfit and described them as being “the best team we have played so far this season.”
Gray said afterwards: “We were beaten on the night by the better team so full credit to Newton Aycliffe. They were excellent tonight and in my opinion are the best team we have played so far this season. We have got to look at the bigger picture for ourselves. You learn from games and tonight we will certainly learn but we’ve got a big game against Consett on Saturday where we have got to look to bounce back.”
He continued: “The first half – without us being great – I thought we contained them (Newton Aycliffe) quite well out of possession. However we needed to improve in possession and I actually thought we came out better for the start of the second half and it was our best little spell. Then we gave away a poor first goal followed by another poor second and you cannot give good teams two goal head starts like that because it gives them confidence. We looked short of ideas and we didn’t have a great game at all. We’ll reflect on it and although tonight’s result is not going to determine our season, we’ve got to get back on the horse as quickly as we can.”
He added: “It was a really poor result against a good side and I didn’t think we helped ourselves either. You cannot give a team like Newton Aycliffe all the time they had because if you do that then you’re going to get caught out and we got what we deserved in the end. We’ve had three away games and have dug in for seven points but tonight in front of our home fans, we were really disappointing. Next month is crucial where we face teams in and around us and we need to have positive results starting on Saturday.”