By Brian Bennett
Ashington manager Marc Ellison admitted that it was ‘a tough day at the office’ after he watched his side suffer a 5-0 defeat at the hands of Berwick Rangers at Shielfield Park on Saturday.
The ‘Gers were two-nil up at the interval with goals at the beginning and end of the half from Mikey Mbewe and Greg Binnie respectively.
Josh O’Connor netted a third before strikes from Binnie and Danny Handling made up the nap hand.
The scoreline was harsh on a Colliers outfit who certainly had good periods during the contest but backed by an excellent turn out of supporters who made the journey, they could not give them even a consolation effort.
A large chunk of the second period was played in torrential rain and a soaked Ellison said afterwards: “It was a tough day at the office today. I know it’s only pre-season and ultimately, results aren’t the be-all and end-all but nobody enjoys taking a hiding, regardless of the importance of the game. I’ve probably got to take responsibility for today’s result. I asked the lads to play a different formation to the one we’ve used over the last few games without really having enough time to work on it properly in training. It’s a shape we used last season, albeit with different personnel and to be honest I really enjoyed watching us play that way. We picked up some really positive results with it so I wanted to have another look at it. I just felt that, with the players we had available today, it probably didn’t suit us as well and we perhaps didn’t fully understand exactly how we wanted to play it. That’s no criticism of the lads whatsoever – that’s what pre-season is for. It’s about trying things, learning from them and finding out what works best for the group.”
He continued: “After we conceded a sloppy first goal, I actually thought we responded well. We had the better of the possession during the first half and created a few good half chances but didn’t really hurt them. On another day, if our final pass, finish or decision-making had been a little better, the scoreline might have looked different. When the league games start, those fine margins can be the difference between picking up points or coming away empty-handed, so it’s definitely an area we need to improve. Unfortunately, we then gave away another really sloppy goal just before half-time which is frustrating.”
He added: “The second half followed a similar pattern when we conceded an early goal which killed the game off for them and from that point we never really managed to get going or build any momentum. We lacked conviction in both boxes at times and gifted away goals, which always makes life difficult whoever you’re playing against but Berwick were decent, especially in the second half. We’ve spoken about that, along with a few other areas we know we can improve on, and that’s the important thing.”
With England’s World Cup semi final against Argentina taking place on Wednesday (July 15), Crook Town and Ashington have agreed to bring their friendly – which was scheduled to take place on the same night – forward by 24 hours with the game now taking place on Tuesday evening.
Ellison said: “The good thing about pre-season is that you don’t have to wait long for the next opportunity. We’ve got another game on Tuesday, and it’s a chance for us to put things right, learn from today’s lessons and be better all over the pitch.”