By Brian Bennett

Following Ashington’s 4-0 hammering against Consett on Friday night it was a distraught Liam McIvor who emerged from the dressing room to give his postmatch thoughts.

McIvor – the assistant manager at Woodhorn Lane – was bold and frank when he said: “I’m speechless to be honest. It’s not very often where I have come away from football and felt that I could cry. We have got some great players in our team but if you give goals away the way we do then you’ll get absolutely nothing. Had it not been for goalkeeper Tyler Jones we could have been 5-0 down inside the first 10 minutes – and we couldn’t have complained. Two nil was bad enough – the goals coming from long throw ins and where we’ve given the ball away – then the third (goal) has killed us just before half time.”

McIvor admitted that words had been exchanged in the dressing room during the interval:

“It’s not the first time this season where strong words have been said and we can’t continue having these conversations every week,” he said, “We’ve had four great training sessions since the Blyth Town game. We talked about how we got away with it at the end of that match with Tyler Jones’s save getting us a point in a 0-0 draw but realistically we should have been out of sight by half time. Against Blyth Spartans we scored a last minute equaliser after conceding a silly goal; the goals at Dunston were equally as bad – and its becoming a recurring theme every week. What I do know is that you don’t win games when you give away goals in the manner in which we do as a team.”

He continued: “Losing 3-0 at half time at Consett, for the second half you either roll your sleeves up, stick your chest out and jump in the trenches or you roll over. What I will say is that we were much better and although they (Consett) scored at the end, we have got to improve as a team. We can’t concede goals the way we are doing and expect to win games of football and that’s the reality. We don’t do the basics well enough at times and we can dress it us as much as we want but the goals we are giving away are a disgrace.”