By Brian Bennett

Ashington FC’s left sided player Luke Salmon emerged from the dressing rooms after the 3-3 draw against Billingham Town on Saturday and helped to clear up the ‘incident’ which occurred with only seconds of the contest remaining by emphatically stating that the whole of the ball had not crossed the line when he made his last ditch clearance.

The Bedford Terrace side thought they had scored a dramatic winner until Salmon got back to steer the ball away to safety.

The 30 year old said: “I’ve got a habit of going back onto the line all the time – our ‘keeper Adam McHugh knows I do that – and obviously it’s worked today as I got the ball away. It was very close – but it wasn’t a goal.”

North Shields-born Salmon added that he came off the Bedford Terrace pitch ‘upset’ following the result.

Salmon scored the second goal for the Colliers – but was also involved in Billingham’s equaliser (2-2) after he had back-heeled the ball inside the Ashington area: “We should have won but personally I came off more upset than thinking I had had a good game,” he added. “The lads are disappointed with a draw because they know we are a better side than what we showed.”

When Salmon netted in the 11^th minute, the goal put the Colliers into a commanding 2-0 lead which they let slip with the Teessiders going ahead 3-2 early in the second half before substitute Jordan Lashley levelled: “lt’s always good to score,” he said, “I was up in the box and Jamie (Hanson) just tried to repeat his first goal. I anticipated seeing the ‘keeper (Jack Norton) parry the ball away and it bounced in front of me and I just finished it.” Meanwhile Salmon is hoping to be in the squad on Tuesday night when Ashington face Guisborough Town in the quarter final of the Division One Cup at The dwmedia Stadium: “We got annihilated by Guisborough recently in the league match but it’s another game on Tuesday,” he said, “It’s good to still be in a cup competition and it makes our season a bit more exciting. Our crowd are always class so it’ll be great to have them behind us. Week in week out they always spur us on and I’m looking forward to it.”

By Brian Bennett

Ashington FC manager Ian Skinner was left pulling his hair out after his side threw away an early two goal lead at Billingham Town on Saturday and came within a whisker of losing the contest at Bedford Terrace.

Skinner said afterwards: “I thought I had seen it all in football. However, I’m not sure I can believe the game which I’ve just witnessed in terms of a team (Ashington) who started really brightly, played quickly, were on the front foot and tried to go out and find a little bit of confidence to play the way we had played earlier in the season. We came out and did that and Jamie (Hanson) scores a brilliant first goal following a great move up the side, a great ball in and he did really well to finish it. We’ve worked a little bit with Jamie making those runs and have talked to him about that run across the front post. Then it was almost a carbon copy for the second goal really only this time the goalkeeper (Jack Norton) has made a fantastic save from Hanson and Luke Salmon has done what he does really well – following things in and has managed to prod the ball home. At 2-0 you think ‘this could be good’ and what we needed in terms of a win going into a cup game against Guisborough on Tuesday night – then we slowed the play down, stopped playing quickly, wanted too many touches on the ball, dwelled on the ball in really bad positions and conceded a really poor goal. We didn’t deal with the ball over the top and the player has wriggled free. We tell people to open their shoulders in the middle so they can see the player and the cross coming in but they’ve closed their body off and watched the ball and left Terry Stephenson with a free header in the six yards box.”

He continued: “We then think ‘let’s steady this’ but how do you legislate for someone back heeling the ball in the box when you are defending and you can’t see what’s behind you? They pinched the ball and score – that said Luke Salmon it was with the error but then he’s probably saved us a point at the end. Luke has gone from following in and scoring to costing us an equalising goal by back heeling the ball in the box and then by hook or by crook with last ditch defending has managed to get the ball off the line literally in the last few seconds. To be fair our ‘keeper Adam (McHugh) has made a great save in stoppage time at the end of the first half for us to go in level. Then we come out second half where we still wanted to be positive and recreate that first 20 minutes but we conceded. I thought it was a foul (on Ben Harmison) if I’m honest but they’ve scored and then we’ve had a sin bin in amongst all that. In the first half Jamie Hanson hit the post then in the second half we’ve hit the post again, the crossbar twice and all of a sudden I’m wondering ‘is it meant not to be?’ In the last three of the 90 minutes plus the added time, we could have won it after getting into some fantastic positions but our delivery today – whether it be in open play or set play – was really poor – then Billingham have had two great chances to win it.” He went on: “I’ve probably seen Ashington’s season in one game today – for the first 20 minutes the Ashington who have done really, really well this campaign and who have played some fantastic free flowing football and have scored some really good goals but then I saw the achilles heel Ashington who like to make things interesting and concede poor goals defensively as a team. We are great when we are going forward and scoring goals but for 25 minutes until half time when we haven’t got the ball, questionable in terms of how hard we work to make it difficult for the opposition. That Ashington carried on a little bit after the break then during the last ten minutes or so, you see the front foot Ashington who appeared to be stronger again and who looked as if they had the legs on them (Billingham). Certainly in the closing stages we looked fitter and were moving the ball and causing them problems. Having said that, we nearly got caught – but it’s a point which stops the run of four consecutive defeats.”

Photograph: Ian Brodie

By Brian Bennett

March has been a month of frustration for Ashington FC manager Ian Skinner. His side collected a midweek win at Redcar in addition to a Division One cup victory over Thornaby but are now on an unwanted run of four consecutive defeats in the league.

However, ahead of Saturday’s match against Newton Aycliffe the boss received some positive news from Tom Bramley and Ben Sampson after both declared themselves fit and available for selection – and Skinner was able to include both players in his squad of 16.

Bramley – out for over six months with an ankle injury – was named on the bench whilst Sampson was included in the starting eleven and had a superb match in the middle of the park.

Skinner said: “Tom (Bramley) has been out a long time but trained on Thursday and came through okay. We suggested he might need to try his ankle out so we put him in the squad today as a precaution really given the circumstances we found ourselves in last week where we were really short on centre backs. It wasn’t really to involve Tom if I’m honest then before the game, I thought we were a little bit short up top because of the injury to Adam Johnson. We played Jamie Hanson and Jordan Lashley up front and gave them an opportunity and I thought if the game wasn’t going our way and we needed to chase it, then it was an option to put Tom (Bramley) at the back and push Ben Harmison up top. As soon as Ben went up there for the last 20 minutes it was almost panic stations in the Aycliffe back line! He wins things and brings the ball down and brings people into play. Ben did really well to play the ball on for Jamie (Hanson) and then Jamie has put it on a plate for Harmison to tap it in for our goal. We’ll see if Tom has any reaction but if not then it gives us a little bit of a lift at both ends of the field.” Skinner also showered glowing praise on Sampson: “The hamstring injury which Ben picked up seems to have settled down really well and quickly so it mustn’t have been as bad as first feared and been more of a twinge as opposed to a pull, strain or tear,” he commented, “Ben trained last week and said he felt comfortable and that he had no reaction – so I put him straight into the side and I thought he was excellent. He gave us that bit of presence and was really good at breaking the play up – but what I really liked about him today was once he won the ball, he was really positive in driving forward. He carried the ball and drove at the opposition – and opposition players don’t like you running at them. I thought Ben would be in the running for almost being one of our best performers on the day and I was delighted he came back in. It was definitely a plus point and we can now consider him moving forward.”

Photograph: Ian Brodie

By Brian Bennett

Ashington FC manager Ian Skinner said mistakes cost his side dearly as they tumbled to a fourth consecutive defeat against Newton Aycliffe at The dwmedia Stadium on Saturday.

Striker Liam Jarvie scored both goals for the visitors – the second from the penalty spot shortly before the interval – and although skipper Ben Harmison netted ten minutes from time, it was the County Durham side who took all three points.

Skinner said: “I thought it was a pretty even game but one which was decided on mistakes – and Aycliffe have taken advantage of the ones made by us. I was disappointed with the first goal we conceded as to how easy Jarvie got through. We got the wrong side, Jarvie’s shot has gone through someone’s legs which is always difficult, and he’s finished it. However the game changed massively changed on 43 minutes when we’ve tried to play out from the back. Our body shape and everything else was all wrong and we were caught in possession on the edge of the box. We got away with that a little bit in terms of getting back to delay him (Jarvie) when he’s in the box and give away what was a very soft penalty. All of a sudden we go in at half time two nil down and you worry a little bit because it’s a recurring pattern. The last three home games we have gone in at half time 2-0 down and it then takes a big pendulum swing and a massive effort to get back into it.”

The boss was however, pleased with his side’s display after the break: “I thought second half, they (Aycliffe) looked to contain a little bit but from the first minute, we looked better and there was bit more intensity. We looked to play on the front foot a little bit more and to be fair we have fashioned some good opportunities. Jamie Hanson has had a decent chance; Liam Doyle has done really well to dance all the way to the by line and then tried to cross from a tight angle and the ball has gone across the face of the goal and trickled out for a goal kick. Dean Briggs has also had a golden opportunity where they (Aycliffe) have tried to play out from the back similar to us and whereas we conceded a penalty, they have presented the ball to Dean with an open goal. He’s under hit it and the defender has got back on the line to clear it. However, I was pleased with the second half performance; disappointed that we have lost the game and until we cut mistakes out, we are going to lose games of football.”

Skinner continued: “I thought we should have had two penalties and it will interesting to review the incidents on the footage.”

Ashington now go to Teesside on Saturday to face Billingham Town. Max Emmerson, Thomas Kalthoeber, Adam Johnson and Paul Robinson are all ruled out whilst fitness reports are required from Tom Bramley and Ben Sampson. However Luke Salmon – who was unavailable for last weekend – will come back into the reckoning.

By Brian Bennett

Ashington FC striker Adam Johnson has been ruled out for the rest of the season.

The 25 year old picked up an ankle injury quarter of an hour before the end of the Colliers home clash against Seaham Red Star: “I went to Wansbeck General Hospital the following day,” he said, “I had an X-ray which luckily showed no break or fracture but it revealed ligament damage and I was told I would be out of action for a minimum of eight to 12 weeks before I could even think about playing again. “

He continued: “I’m gutted because I wanted to help to get us as high up the league as we can – and I know the lads will be trying their best. On top of that there is also the quarter final of the Division One Cup. I think we are a good cup side and have shown that we can scrap it out when needed. Apart from the last two weekends, our home ground has been pretty much a fortress for us so I think it will do us the world of good to have home advantage for the cup tie on Tuesday April 5 against Guisborough Town.” Johnson – who joined the Colliers from Blyth Town in November – went on: “I’ve settled in here and I love it – and I’ll be watching and cheering the lads on from the sidelines.”

By Brian Bennett

Ashington FC’s Thomas Kalthoeber and Ben Sampson are hoping to give manager Ian Skinner a double boost – despite the end of the season being just around the corner!

The two defenders are currently out of action with hamstring injuries but both are eyeing the possibility of a return before the Colliers travel to Consett for their final league game of the campaign on Saturday April 16.

Twenty year old Kalthoeber has a grade one tear which could keep him out for four weeks: “I’m not going to push things in case my hamstring goes again but ideally I would like to come back before the end of the season as we want to finish as high up the league as we can,” he said, “I picked up my injury in the Division One cup game against Thornaby over ten days ago and although I know we face a tough test against Guisborough in the quarter finals of the competition, if we can progress, it would give me an added incentive to try and return to the fold. I think the cup is an exciting prospect with some good teams left in.”

Meanwhile Ben Sampson said: “My hamstring was a bit tight in the cup match at Thornaby on the Wednesday and I played through it – then I felt okay when I was warming up against Seaham Red Star on the Saturday but during the game I went to kick the ball down the line and it just went. I’ve been resting it and I don’t think it’s too bad – and I’m hoping to be back before the end of the season.”

The 23 year old continued: “I’m gutted that I’m out when we’ve had an sticky spell over the last few weeks. However, we have improved so much and it’s easy to forget how far we have come.” Manager Ian Skinner said: “Obviously we will see how things develop but I’m writing Thomas and Ben out of the equation for the rest of the season. If we can get them back then it’ll be a bonus.”

By Brian Bennett

Ashington FC boss Ian Skinner said at the weekend that if his players can’t look at Saturday’s 6-1 defeat at the hands of Guisborough and get motivated for the forthcoming quarter final cup clash against the Teessiders early next month, that his outfit have got problems.

Speaking in the wake of the heavy reverse, Skinner is challenging his players to bounce back for the Ebac Northern League Division One cup tie which is at Woodhorn Lane on Tuesday April 5: “After losing 6-1 at home today and knowing you have got an opportunity in a couple of weeks time to play the same opposition in a cup competition in a straight knock out, if that doesn’t motivate this group of players to say ‘let’s go and show people that the 6-1 defeat against Guisborough in the league was not the real Ashington and that we’ll really be trying our utmost to book a place in the semi final’ – then we really have got problems,” he said, “It’s not solely because it’s a quarter final tie with the opportunity of a home semi final – it’s also as we have been nowhere near good enough today.”

The Colliers have four league games remaining and Skinner added that he doesn’t want the season to merely peter out. However for Saturday’s home clash against Newton Aycliffe (March 26), the boss will have to reckon without Max Emmerson, Tom Bramley, Adam Johnson, Thomas Kalthoeber and Ben Sampson who are all ruled out through injury whilst Paul Robinson is suspended.

By Brian Bennett

Ashington FC manager Ian Skinner was seething after watching his side slump to a 6-1 defeat at home to Guisborough Town on Saturday. The Woodhorn Lane boss said there were no excuses and that his players ‘need to have a look at themselves.’

After being one win away from going second top of the Ebac Northern League’s first division recently, the crushing defeat was the third reverse in a row for the Colliers who have now slipped down the table to seventh.

And afterwards Skinner said: “There are no excuses. I thought we started okay and kept the ball okay and were probably the better side until they (Guisborough) scored – and then we did what we do fantastically well where we concede twice within five minutes which gives us a mountain to climb. I always protect the group of players that we have here because I’ve got a lot of time for them – but they need to have a look at themselves now. That’s three Saturday’s in a row where we have fallen way, way short. There’s a phrase in football of ‘they’re either on the beach or don’t want to be here anymore’ and they (the players) need to decide which it is because those last three league performances aren’t good enough for this football club – and I’m not going to tolerate it anymore.”

He continued: “Don’t get me wrong – we’ve lost three of the back four today. We have got four centre backs at the club and all four are injured – two of whom are out for the season whilst we don’t know when the other two will return. So we’ve fielded a real makeshift back four and we’ve had to call on Owen Gourley to come and help us out – and credit to him. Owen hasn’t played at this level for a while and we’ve also had to ask Yannick Aziakonou to play at centre back which isn’t his preferred position but that said we attack as a team and defend as a team so I’m certainly not going to point the finger at the defence. Again you cannot plan for the goals we conceded – they are sheer individual errors which are unaccountable and the players need to start learning lessons. I don’t think Guisborough have created anything – yet they’ve scored six goals. We’ve literally – and Guisborough may chuckle at this – gifted them six goals and at this level you can’t do that.”

Skinner revealed that going in 2-0 down at the break, he challenged the players: “At half time all I did was to challenge them to show some spirit and desire and some want and I also challenged them for a performance which we haven’t seen for a few weeks but we know they are capable of. I told them they were in danger of unpicking all the good work they have done throughout the season to get them into the position we were in but the last few weeks they seem determined to just throw that all away. We have conceded four in the second half – that’s the reaction we got.”

He added: “We trained on Tuesday and the intensity was really, really good. Unfortunately we had to cancel training on Thursday due to unforeseen circumstances but the last three Saturday displays shows me they are not up for the fight.” Skinner revealed that he will step up his search to bring in new players this week: “There’s not long left before the March 31 deadline but I’m going to seriously have a look to see if I can bring one or two in,” he said, “It’s not something I usually do but because of injuries coupled with performances which are not acceptable any more – I feel I have no alternative.”

By Brian Bennett

Ashington will take on Guisborough Town in the quarter final of the Ebac Northern League first division cup at The dwmedia Stadium on Tuesday April 5.

Following Wednesday’s terrific 1-0 win away in the second round encounter at Thornaby, Colliers boss Ian Skinner had said he wanted a home tie – and his wish came true when the draw was made.

However there is an added incentive for the winners as the victors will have home advantage in the semi finals.

Ironically, the two sides clash at Woodhorn Lane on Saturday (March 19) in their Ebac Northern League first division fixture but Skinner categorically stated that the league and cup games will be completely different: “I don’t buy into it that Saturday’s match will be a dress rehearsal for our cup match because they will be two separate games,” he said, “After the win at Thornaby I asked for a home tie – which we have got -and if we progress we have another home game so I don’t think we could have asked for anything more.”

He continued: “Our home form has been good albeit frustrating and disappointing against Seaham Red Star today but we have won 11 games on our home patch and we’ll approach the cup game when it’s time. Before that we have got three league games to contend with and we’ll not be looking any further forward than playing Guisborough at the weekend. With no midweek game, we’ll be able to get onto the training pitch and will prepare properly – as we always do – for Saturday’s contest.”

Photo: Ian Brodie

By Brian Bennett

Ashington FC manager Ian Skinner talked about frustration being the key word in the aftermath of Saturday’s 2-1 home defeat at the hands of Seaham Red Star.

Skinner said: “We had a fantastic 1-0 win away to Thornaby in the cup in midweek so we thought that because of the performance on Teesside we’d only go with the one enforced change today with Thomas Kalthoeber dropping out through injury and Ben Harmison coming back in. But we seem to be the masters of shooting ourselves in the foot and never really recovered after the first seven minutes where we conceded twice – and again they were two really avoidable goals. They’ve won the first header and the second in our box from a corner. The first (header) was contested but for the second we are asleep on the back post and Danny Sayer got in front of his man and nodded the ball in. We had passed the ball okay in the opening moments so that was disappointing then we gave it away on half way and they’ve worked it down our left hand side and switched it out to the right and again it was a really poor goal to concede defensively but fair play to him (Sayer) who has cut inside and scored. Consequently we gave ourselves a mountain to climb. We try not to panic and you say ‘okay keep doing what we do well at home and get our foot on the ball and pass it’ but we couldn’t seem to be able to do that whether confidence had zapped out of us or whether it was that the players were trying too hard knowing that we were 2-0 down. Our touch was off; our passing was off; our movement was off and we didn’t press them (Seaham) when they had the ball and the first half was a non event for us.”

He continued: “We had had to make an enforced change in the first half when Ben Sampson felt his hamstring so he had to come off and I just thought we needed to change things for the second half and had to be on the front foot coming down the bank a little bit. We introduced another couple of subs and Seaham have sat in a little bit and said ‘come on then break us down’ – and although we saw more possession, again we didn’t really move the ball quick enough to move them around. We passed it without really creating too much – and I can’t remember too many efforts on goal if I’m honest. You just think ‘it’s going to be one of those days’ where nothing is going right for us. We couldn’t seem to control it and pass it the way we are used too; we had made three subs then Adam Johnson has had to come off injured so we changed it again and we take an even bigger risk and go with three at the back and push Ben (Harmison) up front. That meant we sacrificed our principles because we are a man light and the intention was to go from back to front as quick as we could – but even then we didn’t play into Ben with any kind of quality and when we did, we didn’t get runners around which was the whole point of him going up there. However, the one time we did, we got a goal back. It’s gone up to Ben, he’s flicked it and we are asking Jordan Lashley to play off Ben and the one time he (Lashley) does get close to him and reads the flick-on he brings it down and fires it into the bottom corner. If the goal had come ten minutes earlier it might have been interesting but it was probably a little bit of ‘too little, too late.’

He went on: “It was a bit of a niggly game but I just thought it was disappointing all over and frustration is the key word but let’s not forget how far we have come. Historically – and without being disrespectful – for the last decade this club (Ashington) have been on about not being in the bottom three and today we were talking about if we had won, we could have gone second top so at times we need to put things into perspective. Yes we are all disappointed and yes we haven’t played to the levels we are capable of but these players usually bounce back. They seem to follow up a disappointing result with a positive one and we need to do that next week at home to Guisborough. Our home record is really, really good, I think that is our fourth defeat along with one draw out of our games at Woodhorn Lane and we have won 11.” Skinner will have to reckon without Thomas Kalthoeber, Tom Bramley and Max Emmerson who are all ruled out through injury whilst Ben Sampson is doubtful and Adam Johnson’s fitness will be assessed. However, Max Cowburn and Paul Robinson come back into the reckoning along with Jamie Hanson for the match which has a 3pm kick off.