By Brian Bennett

Ashington manager Nick Gray was full of praise for Newcastle United and Gav Perry after there was frantic action behind the scenes at Woodhorn Lane last week.

At training on Thursday night – and less than 48 hours before the Colliers away clash against Garforth Town in the Isuzu FA Trophy – both goalkeepers picked up injuries.

Regular stopper Matty Alexander sustained a finger injury then minutes later Josef Herdman rolled his ankle.

Gray said: “For both of your goalkeepers to go down injured within 15 minutes of each other and end up in A & E at the hospital is certainly not ideal preparation. So I’d like to thank Newcastle United who helped us out massively by agreeing for Tyler Jones to join us on a short term deal. Then there is the paperwork side of things as well as phone calls and Gav Perry was first class. He got the signing over the line when the deadline was 12 noon on Friday.”

Gray was delighted with the debutant: “Tyler did smashing,” he said, “He was really good including his kicking which was excellent.”