By Brian Bennett
Marc Ellison – appointed alongside Karl Ross as Ashington’s interim management team – described the 8-0 drubbing by Northern Premier League East Division league leaders Redcar Athletic on Saturday as being ‘a humbling experience’ and one which he hopes he will never have to face again.
In the reverse fixture between the teams in mid October, Ashington had chances to win the contest before the free scoring Teessiders scored an 89th minute winner. However on Saturday, Carl Jarrett’s outfit were 4-0 up at the break and although the Colliers improved in the second half – and missed a penalty – the goals continued to rain in as the visitors showed no signs of a let up.
Man of the match Louis Johnson led the way with a hat -trick with other goals coming from John Howard, Adam Boyes, Oscar Fletcher, Rio May and substitute Brad Fewster.
Whilst the defeat was bad enough, more significantly it made Ashington’s goal difference the worst in the division as the Wansbeck side – who remain fourth bottom – battle to avoid the drop.
A dejected Ellison said: “It was a really, really humbling experience after last week’s good performance. Redcar are a brilliant team with a fantastic management set up behind them and are top of the league for a reason but if we aren’t prepared to do the ‘non-negotiables’ in football, things like today happens.”
He continued: “No-one expected us to get a result today and to be honest the easy way out would be to say it was a free hit for us but that’s something which I’m not willing to accept. I’ll take full responsibility as I’ve sent the lads out onto the pitch but there have been a few harsh truths that needed to be told within the dressing room. As I’ve said, I don’t want to take any shine off Redcar’s performance as they were really good value for their win and if it wasn’t for our goalkeeper Ben Metcalf, the result could have looked even worse than it does – but we cannot allow good teams and good players to do as they wish and crumble when things don’t go our way.”
He concluded: “It’s all about character now and we’ll do our best to have the lads ready to go again on Tuesday night when we are at home against Emley.”