By Brian Bennett | Photo: Ian Brodie
After two games where he has had a face like thunder, Ashington manager Nick Gray emerged from the dressing room on Saturday wearing a smile following his sides battling goalless draw against Grimsby Borough in North East Lincolnshire.
“It wasn’t a classic game by any means but it was a point on the road and we kept a clean sheet,” he said “I was proud of all the players today because they gave everything and left everything on the pitch. On Thursday night against Newcastle University it was both a disappointing result and performance as we lost 2-0 but there were some lessons learned. We definitely would have taken a point before the game today. If I’m being honest I thought it was probably a fair result because I didn’t think either team had that bit of quality in the final third. We even could have won it – but that’s been our issue where we are not scoring or working the goalkeeper. There are still things which we have got to learn but today was positive. We’ve had two draws in the league and are hard to beat but we need to work on finishing teams off.”
He continued: “It was a good bounce back after Thursday night. We are a Jekyll and Hyde team with my assistant Liam McIvor and I not sure what we are going to get. The best teams have got consistency – and that’s what we have got to aim for. You take each game and now the midweek games have finished which allows you to work on things in training but you’ve just got to keep thinking positively.”
He added: “Probably a learning curve for us today was the substitutes who came on and who gave everything were the people who haven’t had many minutes. We probably need to work them a bit harder because we are asking them to do things when they go on the pitch and they are not quite up to fitness but I take the responsibility and blame for that – it’s not on them.”
Ashington were forced into a late reshuffle when Scott Lowery pulled out in the warm up – and Gray gave a glowing tribute to Ryan Donaldson: “Scott was disappointed but he didn’t feel right,” said the boss, “He’s had an injury and played last week and after not involving him against Newcastle University, I thought he would have been okay for today – but fair play to Ryan Donaldson. Ryan was informed 20 minutes before the game that he was starting and he got through 90 minutes. He’s been out for a while with injury himself but he’s played two games within 48 hours and that’s credit to him. He’s comfortable on the ball and is a very good communicator on the pitch.”