By Brian Bennett

Josh Gilchrist scored the first goal and claimed an assist with the second as Ashington claimed a 2-0 victory over Brighouse Town on Saturday.

The three points banished relegation fears once and for all and Gilchrist said afterwards: “It’s a great feeling. It’s been a long hard season – we’ve had some good times and some poor times and we know we probably haven’t been where we would like to be. But credit to the lads because we’ve stuck in and dug deep. We didn’t really want it to go to the last game to secure our place in the division for next season. We had a chance and a great opportunity to do it today (at Brighouse) and we took it.”

Craig Spooner saw a penalty saved midway through the first half by home ‘keeper Michael Acquah and Gilchrist said: “A penalty miss can deflate you at times but the good thing was that it was nice and early in the contest. I told Craig not to worry about it because we had the rest of the game to put it right.”

For his goal, Gilchrist said: “Ollie Thompson has put the ball across the box. I tried to take a touch as the pitch was lively and it bobbled and it was just about getting a good contact on the ball. Fortunately, I hit it well and it has gone in the top corner.”

Five minutes later the striker played the ball through for Chris Reid to double the lead and Gilchrist said: “I think it’s important that after going 1-0 up you get the next goal because if they end up pinching one, you’re on the back foot straight away. We kept doing the basics right. The message at half time was ‘let’s not start to rush things and keep things right’ – and that’s what we did.”