By Brian Bennett

Ashington’s assistant manager Liam McIvor has described the Easter Monday showdown against Heaton Stannington as being a must-win game for the Wansbeck side.

McIvor was speaking minutes after the Colliers had secured a share of the spoils from their Pitching In Northern Premier League East Division clash against Sheffield on Good Friday.

Ashington’s goals came from Josh Gilchrist and Craig Spooner.

The point was better than nothing, but the Colliers are still not safe from the drop and McIvor said afterwards: “Considering we were 2-0 down it was a huge point today. Survival is still in our hands – and the reality of the situation is that we have got to win against Heaton Stannington on Easter Monday because we don’t want to be going into our last game at Bradford Park Avenue needing to take anything from it in order to stay up.”

McIvor has asked the people of Wansbeck to provide backing from the terraces: “We need as many fans inside Woodhorn Lane as possible,” he said, “Newcastle United are not playing and the supporters can help us massively. They are absolutely unbelievable, and we need them to be behind us from the first minute to the last.”

Looking back at the 2-2 draw in Sheffield, McIvor said: “The first half was awful – everything that could go wrong went wrong. No-one was at the races. Second half we gave it a right go. We got a great start which brought us back into the game and then it was all Ashington. However, we still need to try and create something else because we rely on Craig Spooner and Josh Gilchrist too much and the rest of the team have got to chip in as well.”

McIvor also heaped praise on ‘keeper Ryan Catterick “Ryan pulled off two great saves for us in the second half,” he said.

Monday’s game kicks-off at 12 noon.