By Brian Bennett | Photo: Ian Brodie
Ashington’s interim boss Marc Ellison admitted that his side had come up short against promotion chasers Emley on Tuesday night – but praised the players for their efforts and said that ‘a draw would probably have been a fair result.’
Josh Gilchrist gave the Colliers the lead in the first half but the Pewits took all three points back to West Yorkshire with two goals in the final 25 minutes from Charlie Barks and Kurtis Turner.
Following their 8-0 hiding against Redcar Athletic on Saturday, it was a superb effort from the Wansbeck side who left every drop of energy out on the Woodhorn Lane pitch and who came close to taking a share of the spoils.
Afterwards Ellison said: “The Ashington performance in the first half is the minimum I’ll expect from us over the next 13 games. I thought we dominated a team (Emley) who are second in the table for large spells of that half and going in 1-0 up was the least the players deserved. Emley adjusted their shape just before half time and in fairness, probably had the better of the second half.”
He continued: “We asked the lads to keep doing what they were doing but when you’re protecting a lead in the position we’re in, you sometimes find yourselves subconsciously holding on to what you have rather than building on it. Yes we need to be braver in possession at times and recognise when the game needs an extra pass to regain control but as a group, we’re still learning how we want to identify ourselves and that’s okay.”
He added: “After the weekend we’ve had, we held a good honest conversation about the expectations of this football club – from staff to players, volunteers and supporters. Ashington is a hard working town with down-to-earth people and the minimum they deserve is for our lads to give everything they have for 90 minutes, twice a week. I can’t fault the players’ effort tonight. They haven’t run like that in a long time.”
He went on: “Overall, I think a draw would probably have been a fair result based on our first half performance but we’ve come up short against a quality side. We can accept that but we know we still have to improve. It’s set a marker for our work-rate standards – nothing less will be accepted. We hope the fans can see that and get right behind us next week.”
Ashington travel to Garforth Town on Saturday (February 28) before they face Consett at Woodhorn Lane on Tuesday (March 3).