Match Report

By Brian Bennett

Ashington exited the Isuzu FA Trophy at the preliminary round stage on Saturday when they went down 3-0 against Garforth Town at the Bannister Prentice Stadium.

The scoreline suggests a comfortable win for ‘The Miners’ but it was far from the case.

The Wansbeck side – who trailed to goals from Mutty Al-Jahadhmy and Rinor Ejupi – were in the game throughout and when substitute Josh Cairns missed a glaring opportunity with quarter of an hour remaining, it was a huge turning point.

Substitute George Harrison then rubbed salt into sore wounds when he scored a third for the home side in the closing seconds.

Following the tragic loss earlier in the week of lifelong Colliers fan Craig Dickinson, Ashington were brilliantly supported on the day. Some of Craig’s family joined with other supporters to generate non-stop chanting from the stand as one of his brothers had asked: ‘let’s make some noise for Craig.’ Ahead of the game, a minutes applause was also held in tribute to Craig.

It was Al-Jahadhmy – making his home debut – who tormented and teased the Colliers all afternoon. He had the first chance in the fifth minute but got no power behind his shot and the ball was cleared.

Three minutes later, Andrew Anderson found Ben Sampson with a superb cross field pass but after cutting inside, the defender curled a right footer from the edge of the box narrowly over the bar.

Ashington had signed goalkeeper Tyler Jones from Newcastle United under-18’s on a short term deal after regular stopper Matty Alexander and Josef Herdman had picked up freak injuries and the debutant distinguished himself in the 19th minute when he pushed a 30 yarder around at the last second to deny Joe Allerton.

However from the resulting corner, the ball pinged around in the area until it fell into the path of Al-Jahadhmy who fired home from six yards.

Five minutes later, Sampson hooked back a deep corner and Ryan Wombwell’s header was cleared away from virtually on the line by Charlie Marshall.

Matt Savage went close at one end then when play switched, home ‘keeper Harry Flatters made a vital interception with Sam Davison poised to side foot in the equaliser then following another cross, Harry Viggars headed off the line.

Marshall volleyed just over then Jones tipped over from Nash Connolly.

However on the hour Ashington – for whom Harry Powell was outstanding – went two-nil down after another worldie.

Sampson headed the ball infield but it fell to Rinor Ejupi who from 25 yards struck a sweet half volley which flew past the despairing hands of Jones and inside the top corner of the net.

Game over? It certainly was not as in the 73rd minute, Ashington got in behind the Garforth defence but when Josh GIlchrist pulled the ball back, Cairns somehow blazed over.

Even in the latter stages, Flatters fumbled a free-kick from Anderson but Allerton cleared the ball off the line.

In the 90th minute, Davison had a header taken by Flatters following a cross by Sampson then in the third minute of time added on, two substitutes combined with Harry Colville sliding the ball across for Harrison to fire home.