By Brian Bennett
Ryan Donaldson scooped the coveted Players Player of the season at Ashington Football Club on Saturday night – and immediately paid a glowing tribute to one of his defensive team-mates!
It is widely regarded that to be the recipient of the Players Player trophy is the top award – and the 34 year old was delighted to receive it.
Donaldson said: “I’ve enjoyed my football since Marc Ellison came in as interim manager and it was really nice to be announced as the winner. To be fair, on the coach journey home after our 2-0 win over Brighouse Town, Marc told me that I had quite a few votes – so whilst it came as a surprise last week, it wasn’t today! You spend most time with your team mates – you train twice a week and every weekend you’re with them and you build up a relationship over the course of the season. We’ve had good times and we’ve had bad times but you look back now and this is why you love playing the game – you wouldn’t do it if you didn’t enjoy it.”
Longbenton-born Donaldson then eulogised about his defensive partner Chris Reid: “I’ve got to give credit to Chris (Reid) because when I first moved into defence, I played with the twins, Rory and Harry Powell either side of me and I don’t think I helped them as much as I could have done. Then Chris came in and he’s really helped me a lot because he talks me through the game and playing alongside him has made me a better centre half. He’s played there all of his career – left back and centre half and he’s been brilliant. He’s only been with us for half a season but he got my vote for the award.”
Donaldson who is based in South Gosforth added: “I probably still see myself as a midfielder but the way we play, I do enjoy it at the back apart from if I come up against a big centre forward like Liam Henderson when you’ve got to keep your wits about you but I’ve really enjoyed it. I think as you get older, it’s natural if you’re a midfielder to drop back and it’s less taxing on the body.”
Ashington secured their NPL status last week at Brighouse – which came as no surprise to Donaldson who added: “It dragged on a bit – longer than we wanted it to as we had a couple of opportunities last month to cement it. Although it’s easy to say it now, since the end of February, I was really confident that we were going to stay up because there were signs that we were getting better and when we played well, we were a really good team. I think when everyone was fit, that spine of Chris Reid, Karl Ross and Liam Henderson – when we have got that – we are a really good team and so it proved.”
Donaldson acknowledged the support from the fans: “Today you could say there was nothing on the game but they’ve stuck with us all the way,” he said, “With it being the last game of the season you want to give them (the supporters) something back and we’ve totted up the club’s most ever points in this league. We haven’t really given anyone a good hiding – it got a bit tetchy in the second half today when it went to 5-3 – but we deserved to win the game.”