By Brian Bennett
Ashington interim manager Marc Ellison hailed the performance of his team – as well as the result – following their 1-0 success over promotion chasing Dunston at Woodhorn Lane on Friday night.
An understandably buoyant Ellison said afterwards: “It was a brilliant win and I’m absolutely over the moon. We were disappointed that Tuesday night’s game at Blyth Town was called off because we thought it was going to be a bit of a mini cup final six pointer but then as I was driving to the ground today, I realised that we are nearly into April and there’s not many games left – so every game is technically a cup final!”
The Colliers pinned Dunston inside their own half for long periods during the first 45 minutes and Ellison added: “I just asked the lads to run their socks off. We did a little bit of homework on Dunston and exploited where we thought we could be dangerous and to be honest I don’t think they (Dunston) can have too many complaints really as I thought we probably deserved the win. The last two games I think we have been a little bit flat, especially at home with two draws. I just asked the lads to have a bit more belief and a bit more energy about themselves and to believe in what we want them to do and to get after them (Dunston) a little bit more. Every single one of them have ran themselves into the ground so there are absolutely no complaints from me.”
The game turned within a five minutes spell in the second half. Home ‘keeper Matty Alexander saved a penalty from Josh Donaldson – then five minutes later Ben Williams gave Ashington the lead and Ellison said: “I’ve got to be honest, it didn’t look like a penalty from where I was standing but fair play to Matty Alexander – he’s been out for a long time and I thought he was pretty solid all night. That’s probably six points he has won us really as he saved a penalty at Bishop Auckland and we won 1-0 there as well. So big, massive praise to Matty from me. He’s been a little bit unlucky with injuries – we’ve had goalkeepers come in on loan from Newcastle (Tyler Jones) and Sunderland (Ben Metcalf) – but to be fair to Matty, he’s stepped up to the mark.”
Ellison switched his attentions to the all important goal: “It was a great ball in from the free-kick by Josh Gilchrist – who was back to how we know he can be. He’s come out of the team and gone back in tonight and I thought he was brilliant. They’ll probably say (Dunston) can they defend the free-kick better – but its a brilliant ball played in and I think in the first half Gilly has put two or three others in from which we could have scored. It looked like we had actually scored in that first period but I couldn’t see from where I was – then Gilly has hit the post.”
He went on: “I think tonight takes us to three unbeaten at home. I said before the game that we had three left at Woodhorn Lane and I set a challenge asking the players ‘could we go unbeaten at home until the end of the season’ – and this is a start. However, tonight means nothing if we can’t get a result at Blyth Town on Tuesday night. It’s the old cliché of ‘it’s no good putting on a performance like that tonight against a team who are trying to win promotion (Dunston) then turning up against Blyth Town when that is a performance which really matters because they are in and around us.’ We’ve got to dust ourselves down and be ready for Tuesday.”
Meanwhile Ellison says he is enjoying managerial life: “There have been times when it’s not going so well that I’ve thought ‘what am I doing? You think to yourself ‘I could still be playing’ – but I’ve got something to look forward to and lots to learn and I’m enjoying it.”