By Brian Bennett

Ashington’s Liam McIvor said the Colliers have got to have a ‘bit more belief’ in themselves when they go down to West Yorkshire on Saturday to face Silsden.

The assistant manager was speaking minutes after watching the Wansbeck outfit go down to a 1-0 defeat against Heaton Stannington on Tuesday night – which was their third defeat on the spin.

McIvor said: “It was always going to be a mistake which led to the opener and after a 25 yarder had taken a huge deflection, our ‘keeper Matty Alexander was going one way but has unfortunately slipped. It proved to be the deciding goal but we didn’t have that cutting edge in the final third.”

Three minutes into the second half, Ashington had Marc Ellison red carded and McIvor said: “It’s the third game in a row where we have had a player sent off and we cannot afford to keep going down to ten men. They (Heaton Stannington) missed a lot of chances with the extra man but the longer the game went on at 1-0, I knew we would have a moment – and we had a massive opportunity just before the final whistle. From Liam Noble’s corner, we got the first header and Harry Powell’s effort was cleared when the ball was half over the line.”

He continued: “Since Christmas, we’ve had three hard games but we’ll go down to Silsden on Saturday and put a performance in. We’ve got to have a bit more belief in ourselves and go on and try and get that win – then to go on a run. In November, a 2-1 victory over Lincoln United was the start of a four match winning sequence for us – and we’ve got to look to do it again.”