By Brian Bennett | Photo: Ian Brodie
Ashington manager Nick Gray was apologetic on Saturday after his side had tumbled out of the Emirates FA Cup at the first hurdle.
Indeed, Gray’s outfit were licking sore wounds after Shildon – who play in the Ebac Northern League’s first division – defeated them 3-1 in their extra preliminary round clash.
With Shildon having a new 3G pitch laid, the contest was staged at Consett’s Belle View Stadium. It’s a venue which over many years, has not been one of Ashington’s happy hunting grounds. And at around 4.45pm the Colliers were heading for the exit door as goals from Jon Weirs, Andrei-Vasile Ardelean and Luke Spalding put the Railwaymen on track for victory before Craig Spooner scored a late consolation from the penalty spot.
Afterwards a seething Gray pulled no punches when he said: “As a squad we have let the club and the supporters down today. A week is a long time in football – this time last week I was in a lot more positive mood. I thought in the first half we had the lion’s share of the possession – just Shildon were more effective, and they scored a goal which defensively was disappointing from our point of view. We had a few words at half time but if I’m being honest the second half was worse than the first.”
Gray didn’t hold back with his tirade and was keen to emphasise that there were no excuses: “It’s got nothing to do with pre-season, and it’s got nothing to do with the fact that Shildon had played two more competitive games than us – I’m not having that as an excuse. Overall, on the day they were the better side – and it (the scoreline) could have been worse. We have got to learn quickly. I thought too many players weren’t ‘at it’ – and you cannot go through games like that. Shildon had more desire than us; they had more hunger than us and that for me is not acceptable. I don’t mind getting beat by a better team or if the commitment is there but if I was to ask my players from one to eleven who had a better game than their opponent, apart from the respective ‘keepers, I reckon they would struggle to say ‘I came out on top’ – and that’s nothing against their goalkeeper because he didn’t have a shot to save until the penalty towards the end.”
He continued: “Shildon had a lot of changes in their back four and we didn’t utilise that. We spoke about things and didn’t do them. You can say what you want but once they go over the white line, then it’s down to the players who play. You can talk about tactics; you can talk about desire, and you can talk about it being the FA Cup – but it’s so disappointing to get beat. We’ve got a good friendly on Wednesday against Middlesbrough U21’s and our work ethic has got to be much better than it was today.”
He added: “Listen, as a group you take the plaudits and the criticism and today is a day to learn from things because we weren’t at it at all. There were a few other things which we spoke about, but they will stay in the dressing room. We got the ball into wide areas but didn’t utilise it. Especially in the first half we got the ball into good areas but they had a new goalkeeper and three new defenders, and you look at their forwards and what we did in the final third and its chalk and cheese. You can’t just turn it on like a tap. Good players are the ones who are the most consistent and although we’ve got a young group, we’re altogether. If we learn from it, then okay but I know what today means to the club and the supporters especially when you want to boost the profile of the club and to get beat – and the manner of it – was disappointing. There are things we need to work on, and we have got to do things a lot better – but it’s the first game of a long season and the result today is not going to define our season.”