By Brian Bennett | Photo: Ian Brodie

Ashington’s versatile defender or midfielder Ryan Wombwell hailed the gritty performance by his team-mates following their 1-0 victory over Garforth Town on Saturday.

Now the 24 year old – who netted the only goal of the game ten minutes into the second half – says the squad need to turn Woodhorn Lane into a fortress starting on Tuesday with the first of two league games this week.

The Colliers are keeping their fingers firmly crossed that Tuesday night’s match against Consett will finally go ahead (March 3) after the fixture has had two late cancellations before the Wansbeck outfit meet Grimsby Borough on Saturday (March 7).

Newcastle-born Wombwell said: “It was a great win today where we really had to graft really hard. It was probably similar to the North Ferriby clash in the last ten minutes in terms of us having bodies behind the ball and defending for our lives and even moreso as we were down to ten men. However, I thought our victory was thoroughly deserved. To be honest we worked really hard in the first half and probably had more of the ball and dominated the game. For the first 20 minutes of the second period, it was pretty much the same but we had to dig in towards the end and put our bodies on the line. I thought we defended well and we probably got a bit of luck. Ben Metcalf has made a couple of unbelievable saves in goal to be fair – he’s there to back us up when it gets past us and he was brilliant as well.”

For the goal – his first of the season – which moved Ashington out of the relegation zone, Wombwell said: “Chris Reid got free just in front of me and the ball dropped just over the back of his head. To be fair, I wasn’t expecting it – it was more of a reaction as it dropped – but I’ve hit the ball on the volley and although they (Garforth) have tried to clear it off the line, it’s just snuck in.”

Wombwell says Ashington have now got to build on it: “We have won back to back away games at North Ferriby and today at Garforth but we want to play well at home,” he added, “We want to make Woodhorn Lane a hard place for visiting teams to come to. We’ve had two tough home games recently (Redcar Athletic and Emley) but when the fans turn up they deserve to see a better performance than against Redcar – 100 per cent. To be fair, I thought our display against Emley was more like it but we need to start winning games on our home patch. Hopefully if we can win our next two this week, it will put us in a much stronger position in the league table.”