By Brian Bennett | Photo: Ian Brodie
Ashington manager Nick Gray was disappointed – but certainly not downhearted – after his side had lost 2-1 away to league leaders Bradford Park Avenue last midweek.
The Colliers were unlucky not to share the spoils against the West Yorkshire outfit but as his side prepare to face three mouthwatering fixtures in a week – against Emley, Redcar Athletic and North Ferriby – Gray has reflected on the first few months of the campaign.
“We have now played nearly a quarter of the season and by the time we play Emley on Saturday, I think most teams will have done the same,” he said, “From what we have learned from the first 11 games is that the old cliché rings true – that there are no easy games in this league and if you’re not switched on and focussed you’ll get overturned. As for the quality and difference in the sides – I think there are a lot of teams who can beat anyone and then there are the likes of Matlock Town, Bradford Park Avenue and Dunston who stand out for me. Likewise with us, I knew it would take a little bit of time for us to get our first win but perhaps not as long as it did but when you analyse it, we’ve got 11 new players in the squad and we’ve changed our shape this season which has taken some time to adjust too. I’m happy with the pool of players although we always look to add to it if we need to but when we went down to Ossett United and I looked the bench – and of the personnel who were missing – that’s when I thought we’ve got a cracking squad here. The 11 who started must have thought that there was pressure from the bench so they had to perform and when we’re bringing on a Liam Noble, Jake Orrell or a Liam Henderson it holds good for us.”
He continued: “We’ve also got the youngsters like the Powell twins Harry and Rory and Sam Davison who are not even 20 years of age and they have come into men’s football and it’s difficult for them. However I think we are learning with every game. We have a young goalkeeper in Tyler Jones who has done terrific for us. He’s just come to us so half of our team are new to men’s football and it’s going to take time. However, as I keep mentioning to the players, senior football is about getting results – that’s all what matters and if you don’t get them, some players go and predominantly managers go. After our first 11 games we now have some confidence in us but we’ve got to continue with that and take it into our future matches.”
Gray recalled the crushing 4-0 defeat at Consett recently and went into more detail about the reverse at Bradford: “They (Consett) were good on the night but Bradford Park Avenue were even better and if we had played at Bradford like we did against Consett, it would have been an even heavier defeat,” he said, “Yes we had some players missing but I was very proud of everyone who turned up on Tuesday night because they gave their all. We didn’t have much in the way of firepower in the final third but we stayed in the game and worked extremely hard and I certainly couldn’t have asked for anything more from the lads.”
He continued: “I thought Bradford played really well in the first half with loads of energy but after we had addressed a couple of things we came out of the game with a lot of confidence and a lot of credit. We had players who hadn’t played a lot of minutes like Scott Lowery and Jake Orrell. Sam Davison played in an unaccustomed role and we had an 18 year old in Tyler Jones in goal whilst we couldn’t fill the bench so our options were limited. Being greedy we would have liked to have taken a point but we didn’t quite manage that. There are still things to work on – the two goals we conceded at Bradford were disappointing and we’ve got to be more difficult to break down in our half as well as tracking runners, being braver and stronger – and we’ve got to learn quickly.”
He concluded: “I think when you know you are playing a top side or one who are doing well, you’ve got to be focussed and switched on and I think we’ve looked better against the likes of Bradford and Matlock because we raised our game. However the key word in this league is consistency and we’ve got to improve on that. The next three games are going to be challenging for us but they are also going to be challenging for our opponents. We’ve got to pick up points from these games – it’s as simple as that – and we are more than capable of doing that.”