By Brian Bennett
Manager Nick Gray apologised to the Ashington supporters following Saturday’s 3-1 defeat against Bridlington after his side had capitulated in the first half hour during which they conceded all three goals.
‘The Seasiders’ accepted charitable gifts from the Colliers inside a 20 minutes spell and although they rallied after the break and pulled a goal back through Ben Sampson, it proved to be an insurmountable task on the day.
Gray was furious when he emerged from the dressing room afterwards and said: “I’m really disappointed for the travelling fans and we are really disappointed as a group. People have got to stand up and be counted – you can’t just turn it on like a tap. It was a game where there were points available for us today and we didn’t take them but if you give teams three goal starts at this level you don’t deserve anything. If you look at the three goals we conceded, for the first, we lose the ball from our corner and they (Bridlington) go up field and force a corner themselves. The lad doesn’t head the ball at the highest point, he scores it three yards off the floor. The second, was one long ball which we couldn’t deal with and for the third it was our throw in and we’ve given it away in the final third and when they break, their lad is standing unmarked to score.”
He continued: “At half time I said to the players that there were still points in the game for us but there’s no point in me saying it and believing it – they had got to do it themselves. We got a great start to the second half when we pulled a goal back and I was hoping we were going to kick on but it didn’t materialise. To be fair. we were a little bit limited with the personnel we had on the bench today with what we could and couldn’t do but you can’t win games of football with three or four players and that’s what we played with today. I don’t know whether the upcoming semi final in the Newcastle Flooring Northumberland Senior Cup against Morpeth on Tuesday was on the players’ minds and they didn’t want to get injured but the most important game for me was today – not Tuesday. People need to be counted and I just thought we let ourselves down; the club down and the supporters down who had travelled.”
Ashington remain in mid table seven points above the drop zone and Gray added: “It’s disappointing that Bridlington – who are around us – have gained three points because we are still not out of the mire and it’s still in our own hands but we gave ourselves a mountain to climb. Has their ‘keeper made many saves again? Have we put the ball into good areas? Have we put the ball into dangerous areas? Are people prepared to make runs into the channels or make things happen and turn bad balls into good balls? We didn’t do enough today and we are where we are. You’ve got to earn the right to win games of football and I’m just annoyed at the goals we have given away today because they (Bridlington) haven’t had to work hard for them and that’s where we are at the moment with a bit of inconsistency. If anyone had suggested to me before the game that we would get beat 3-1 – and with no disrespect to Bridlington – I wouldn’t have seen that coming. They are in a scrap themselves and first half were more hungrier than ourselves and you can’t have that in football. They were also more aggressive; more creative and quite direct and it was effective for them. They committed bodies forward and fair play to them.”