By Brian Bennett
Ashington manager Nick Gray admitted that his side face a ‘difficult challenge’ on Saturday (August 2) when they meet Shildon in the extra preliminary round of the Emirates FA Cup.
The clash is to be staged at Consett’s Belle View Stadium as Shildon are currently having a new 3G pitch laid at their Dean Street ground.
Gray said at the weekend: “Obviously with the number of teams entering the FA Cup, our season starts earlier. Shildon are not playing on their home pitch which may help us slightly, but they are a good side who have been very unlucky over the last two years not to gain promotion to the Northern Premier League. The play offs didn’t help them but over the campaigns, they have deserved to go up – not once but twice.”
He continued: “It’ll be a tough difficult game for us but equally it’ll be the same for them. I’m sure they will come strong again this season and we know it’s going to be a challenging contest because they have got some good players; a good management team and they’ll be organised. We’ve had them watched in pre-season, so we know a little bit about them and how they played last year but they’ve obviously got a few more personnel. However, we’ve just got to concentrate on ourselves and make sure we put a good game together.”
Gray added that several players will be assessed ahead of the 3pm kick-off: “We’ll be looking at our squad to prepare for the game. We’ll have a strong side out and it should be a good entertaining game,” he said.
Ashington will go into the game with a week of training behind them after they finished their pre-season with a 2-0 win over Surrey-based Horley Town at Woodhorn Lane on Saturday with goals from Michael Annang-Colquhoun and Marc Ellison.
Gray said: “Pre-season is all about fitness and finding out about players. We have certainly found some positives and it’s an opportunity to try things out for what works for you or vice versa. Results wise, Ashington fans would have been disappointed at the result against AFC Newbiggin, but the Newcastle Benfield match was a good workout where we came out of the traps much better the second half whilst we also spotted things which we need to work on.”
He went on: “We’ve had good preparation, and we are raring to go on Saturday. Apart from the FA Cup tie against Shildon, the first five league games including Matlock Town will hit us hard. However, we are slowly getting there.”
If Saturday’s game ends in a draw, the replay will be played at Woodhorn Lane on Tuesday (August 5).