By Brian Bennett | Photo: Ian Brodie
Josh Gilchrist notched a brace to help steer Ashington to a second win in a row as they toppled Brighouse Town 3-0 at Woodhorn Lane on Saturday.
And afterwards, the striker reflected on the fact that whilst he celebrated his 23rd birthday with a double strike, he could have finished with a hat-trick!
Wallsend-born Gilchrist netted just before the interval then tucked away a 75th minute penalty – before he was substituted by manager Nick Gray.
Ten minutes later, the Colliers were awarded a second spot kick and Gilchrist said: “The boss decided to take me off – I don’t know whether he thought it was a case of ‘job done’ or that I was possibly tiring in the conditions. If I had stayed on, I would have taken the second penalty and hopefully bagged a hat-trick on my birthday! However, the most important thing today was us getting the win!”
Gilchrist – a car salesman – steered the ball home for Ashington’s opener just ahead of the interval: “It was big turning point 100 per cent,” he said, “We had the wind on our backs in the first half and it was important that we took advantage of it. To get our tails in front just before half time was massive. Second half we could either go and boom it against the wind or try and play on the bottom. We played through Brighouse and broke the press. The pitch was wet and soggy but breaking the lines we managed to create some goalscoring opportunities.”
Gilchrist described his opener: “Liam Noble has had a shot on target which the ‘keeper has spilled. Harry Powell put the ball back across goal and there was a bit of a scramble on the line. It was a case of me getting into an area where I thought I could get a toe on the ball and I’ve just managed to nick it over the line.”
The forward was involved in the second goal when he was upended in the area: “The defender had a couple of nibbles just outside the box,” he said, “I tried to stay on my feet with a view to getting a shot off but he nibbled one more time when he pulled my shirt in the box and the referee gave a penalty.”
Gilchrist netted from the spot but explained: “It was an important penalty for me because I missed the last one I took against Newton Aycliffe. However, I had no hesitation in stepping forward and credit to manager Nick Gray because he backed me and told me I was on penalty kick duty which gave me a little bit of confidence. I scored with four or five penalties last season and I always thought that if I got another chance that I would score and it would get my tail up a little bit.”
Gilchrist believes confidence has started to return to the side: “It was definitely a team performance today,” he added, “I think we have been on the wrong end of some difficult results recently. Did we deserve them? I don’t think so but that’s football and you sometimes find yourself getting beat when you don’t deserve to. We have got lads playing with a bit more confidence now and we’re playing the right way. We are also starting to find our feet a little bit and hopefully we can kick on from here.”