By Brian Bennett

Ashington’s disappointing start to the season continued on Saturday when they went down 2-0 away to Bridlington on the East coast.

This was their third league defeat of the campaign and once again it was a game where over the 90 minutes, they matched their opponents for endeavour and were certainly not outplayed but ultimately were undone twice within a 15 minutes spell in the second half.

Colliers boss Ian Skinner handed debuts to Simon Jakab and Declan Bisset whilst Jordan Summerly slotted in at left back on his return.

Max Emmerson was named on the bench but pulled up in the pre match warm up and was replaced by goalkeeper Max Coombe.

There was little to enthuse over in the opening ten minutes until a through ball saw the assistant raise his flag for offside against the home side. Everyone stopped except Glen Sani who continued with his run and netted wide of ‘keeper Karl Dryden.

Referee Matthew Wright then consulted with his assistant before disallowing the goal.

On the quarter hour, Lewis Dennison was clean through after getting the better of a tackle with Darren Lough but his powder puff effort was easily held by Dryden.

The game was switching from one end to the other but with defences on top and chances were consequently at a premium.

Ashington’s first shot of the game came two minutes later which saw Damen Mullen’s long range right footer palmed away by home ‘keeper James Hitchcock.

The best move of the match by either side came in the 33^rd minute after Mullen and Summerly had combined down the left but when the latter cut the ball back, Karl Ross fired over the bar.

Then came the two crucial moments in the game as Bridlington took charge.

With only five minutes played in the second half, the Colliers were caught napping after the home side had forced a corner on the left.

Ashington allowed Cam Cunningham to play the corner short to Matty Dixon and when he whipped the ball over, substitute Benn Lewis headed in.

Worse was to follow as Sani beat the offside trap, went through and finished emphatically driving the ball into the top corner of the net past Dryden.

Ironically, the second goal led to Ashington having a prolonged spell of dominance. They were the better side but lacked a cutting edge up front or their final pass went astray.

And when substitute Ben Sampson had an effort cleared off the line with quarter of an hour remaining, the Colliers must have known then that it just wasn’t going to be their day.