By Brian Bennett

Ashington’s joint interim manager Karl Ross spoke of his delight with the character which the players showed as they forced a 2-2 draw against Bridlington Town at Woodhorn Lane on Tuesday evening.

The Colliers twice found themselves trailing in the contest to goals by Seasiders skipper Tom Allan with Louis Burns scoring the first equaliser then Ollie Thompson heading a stoppage time leveller.

Ross said afterwards: “I was happy with a point. Ultimately when you are 2-1 down and you score so late on it feels like a win and lifts the mood in the dressing room. The lads showed great character to come back twice to get a point and we’ll take that into Saturday’s home game against Pontefract Collieries.”

Ross added: “We changed the formation a few times but I still thought we were a difficult watch. We had five and six attackers on the field at one point in the second half as we went for the win and bagging that late equaliser could be a big point in the long run. We were disappointed at half time especially conceding from a set piece because we knew their strengths. They had big lads at the back and we gave them free headers with Tom Allan scoring twice which was very disappointing.”

He added: “I thought we started the second half off well and equalised with a good goal then after going 2-1 down it was tough but we pushed as much as we could. It was a risk when we put all the subs on but I thought the game was there to be won so we said to the subs – ‘get on the pitch and try to win us the game.’ With the strength of the squad we have now got, we had a very strong bench and it was a tough decision for the actual starting eleven.”

Ashington move onto Saturday’s home clash against Pontefract Collieries and Ross said “We played them earlier in the season and they are a strong side. It’ll be another tough game but another one we can get up for and hopefully take some points from it.”