By Brian Bennett | Photo: TCF Photography
Ashington manager Nick Gray expressed his ‘disappointment’ on Saturday following his sides’ 2-0 defeat against Bridlington Town at the Mounting Systems Stadium.
Two goals inside a ten minutes period during the second half from Ahmed Salam proved to be decisive and Gray said: “I was disappointed because I thought it was a game where we could pick up points. In the first half there was nothing in it at all. I was quite content and encouraged because the longer the game went on, the more I believed we could get a result.”
He continued: “I was happy at half time and the message was to be tight and compact for the first 15 minutes of the second half. I thought we had enough capabilities to get something out of the game. Bridlington had been no threat and our goalkeeper Matty Alexander had nothing to do except collect crosses into the box. They (Bridlington) play a certain way of football and I thought we dealt with it well. Second half we came out and gave cheap possession away. We didn’t help ourselves – for the goals we gave the lad (Ahmed Salam) time and space to have shots. We tweaked the shape a little bit but formations don’t win games of football – players do – and we went route one too often.”
He added: “We started to play when we were 2-0 down but its easy then because they sit off you a little bit. We’ve got to have a bit more conviction, desire and belief. We’ve got some young players in the squad but they’ve got to help each other and communicate. I’m the loudest person and that cannot be right. I’m trying to say things from the sidelines but the players have got to make decisions for themselves. Credit to Bridlington in the second half because they were better than us in the right areas. At 0-0 Josh Gilchrist has had a shot and if that had gone in, we might have been looking at a different game. However, we have got to learn very quickly because it’s an unforgiving league.”
He went on: “Good players have a reaction after a defeat and I’ll be looking for one on Tuesday night against Bishop Auckland. We haven’t got a game on Saturday so its important that we get something out of Tuesday’s contest.”