By Brian Bennett
Ashington manager Nick Gray spoke of his overall pride in his players – despite the Colliers going down 2-1 against Bradford Park Avenue on Tuesday night.
The Wansbeck outfit were on the wrong end of a crushing 4-0 defeat against Consett recently and after conceding goals scored by Joe Ackroyd and the impressive Kareem Hassan-Smith in the first quarter hour, looked to be heading for a repeat against the unbeaten league leaders.
However, Scott Lowery silenced the home crowd when he halved the deficit in the 23rd minute with a header and thereafter Nick Gray’s side gave their all and left every drop of energy and sweat out on the Horsfall Community Stadium’s 3G pitch.
Although they never really tested home ‘keeper Jack Hall, the Colliers made Bradford fight all the way for the points and Gray said afterwards: “It was a very difficult first ten to fifteen minutes for us when we were 2-0 down and the players could have chucked it then if I’m being honest – lesser teams would have done – but to be fair to the lads and to give them credit, they stuck to the task. We tweaked the shape a little bit and got back into the game with a goal from a set piece and for the last 20 minutes of the first half and the whole of the second half I was really proud of the lads. Certainly with a little bit of luck we could have got something out of the game.”
He continued: “Take nothing away from Bradford – they are a good side. Their movement was good and they pulled us around in the first half. We came here tonight with one or two players missing and I always say no disrespect to people who aren’t here because they can’t affect the game but to the ones who were here tonight, the club have got to be very proud. Three weeks ago we would have lost that game comfortably so it shows how far we have come and we’ve just got to keep on believing. We’ve now got a weekend off. Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Well we’ve got ten days before our next game and we’ve got to take the positives from the Matlock Town game a couple of weeks ago to where we are now and what I will say is that we are not going to be an easy ride for teams to play us.”
He added: “Young ‘keeper Tyler Jones has had two things to do in the second half – one of them where he’s made an unbelievable save – whilst Andrew Anderson and Scott Lowery haven’t played much football recently and they both did well. Also we had a couple of lads on bookings early doors but they kept their heads right and Sam Davison is another who hasn’t played much but I thought he was brilliant.”
He went on: “Second half we were better without really testing the Bradford ‘keeper but listen they (Bradford) are a good side and I’m not going to take that away from them because they have won the game after what they did to us in the first 20 minutes.
When you are away from home in a midweek game and you come away disappointed from not getting anything against a team who are top of the league shows that you are going in the right direction. However, our next four games are against teams in the top five and play off places so we’ve got to play in the same manner.”
He concluded: “At half time I told the lads that the wide men were coming in off the pitch for them so to condense the middle of the park and for midfield players to stay with runners – and they did that. We sacrificed a little bit up top but I thought Josh Gilchrist worked hard and Craig Spooner played in a role which was a bit unnatural for him but he also put in a shift. The lads gave their all and left everything on the pitch tonight but for the last two weeks we have shown some great character, resilience and togetherness with some quality and we’ve got to take all of the positives. We have a break now before our next game which is away to Emley. Again it will be a tough game – but we’ll look forward to it.”