By Brian Bennett

Teenage striker Louis Burns said he is ‘buzzing’ after joining Ashington on a two month loan deal from National League North outfit South Shields.

The 18 year old was named on the bench for Saturday’s trip to Pontefract Collieries but came on to make his debut midway through the first half when Andrew Anderson limped off with an injury.

Burns said afterwards: “I’ve had a couple of setbacks lately with game time here and there as well as a little knock of confidence so I was buzzing when Ashington came in for me.”

The Durham-born forward spoke about his first appearance in an Ashington shirt: “I was happy with it,” he said, “The gaffer (Nick Gray) asked me to be positive – and I thought I was. I’m looking forward to my time here and it’ll be good to see the fans as I’ve never played at Woodhorn Lane before.”

A heavy defeat wasn’t on Burns’ agenda on Saturday but he said: “I thought the lads did well today. The scoreline doesn’t reflect that because it was 5-0 but I thought they worked hard. We didn’t take our chances whilst they took theirs and that was the difference.”

Boss Nick Gray said: “I thought we were a bit lightweight up top and we didn’t look like a threat so I decided to give Louis (Burns) a go. He’d only had one training session with the lads – but he was keen to get on the ball and to make things happen. He made mistakes but the good thing was he showed a good reaction to win the ball back or improve the next time. He’s only young and he’s learning all the time – but I thought he had a decent debut.”