By Brian Bennett
Ashington’s assistant manager Liam McIvor was still seething when he gave his postmatch interview stating that the Colliers had thrown two points away on Saturday after their NPL East Division clash against Consett had finished 1-1 at Woodhorn Lane.
Both goals came from second half penalties with Josh Gilchrist on the mark for the Colliers before Calvin Smith levelled in the 84th minute.
Before the contest, the Wansbeck outfit were one point behind ‘The Steelmen’ with a game in hand and McIvor said: “It doesn’t seem that bad of a result when you see the other scores in the league this afternoon for teams around and below us – but we are looking on our draw as being a massive two points dropped.”
The game itself was certainly not one for the purists – a fact which was endorsed by McIvor: “I thought the first 20-25 minutes were good and then everything just became slow and lethargic with people frightened to get on the ball and the quality was just terrible,” he said, “To be honest, the second half wasn’t much better but we got ourselves ahead and should have seen the game out.”
He continued: “We’ve gone through on a one on one and I don’t know why we’ve tried to scoop the ball over a ‘keeper who is 6ft 5ins tall. If we had scored it would have secured the win but instead Consett have gone to the other end and we’ve given away a penalty – and I don’t know how we were caught out.”