PROMOTION RACE TAKES ANOTHER TURN

Whitley Bay 1 Ashington 0 – Ebac Northern League Division One:

The game didn’t resolve any promotion issues, apart from confirming that the win keeps Whitley Bay in with a shout for a play-off place and that Ashington’s hopes stuttered again.

In a largely forgettable first half, both teams struggled to find the creativity and guile to unlock their opposition’s defences.  The sides cancelled each other – both trying to attack but both coming up against a brick wall and the keepers, in the main, completing pretty standard saves and stops.

Whitley Bay No. 10 Baily Geliher was the brightest, livelest spark on the pitch in the first half, with his runs and passes trying to set up his team mates going forward.

The last attack of the half saw the decisive goal, Ben Richardson delivering a ball into the Ashington box from the left and Elliott Day rising above everyone else to head it back across the goal and into the net.  Seconds after the re-start, the referee blew for half-time.

In the opening six minutes of the second half it was Whitley No. 7 Josh Gilchrist who provided the spark, with three shots: one blocked, one gathered by Ashington keeper Karl Dryden and the third driven low and hard before being tipped away for a corner by Dryden.

The Colliers’ shots at the start of the half were well off target, one sent high and the other scuffed well wide.  They came closer in the 59th minute with a goalmouth scramble in the Whitley Bay area, with Ryan McKinnon only inches away from getting a foot to the ball to nudge it across the line.

In the 70th minute Whitley keeper Dan Lister stopped a Dan Maguire effort with his body; the ball rebounded back to Maguire who passed to sub Adam Johnson who sent his shot over the bar.

Ashington manager Ian Skinner used all of his five substitutes to try and turn the game around and they had the momentum for most of the closing 15 minutes of the game (even when they were down to 10 men after Ben Sampson was sin binned).  They had a late appeal for a penalty turned down and came up against some stout defending by the home team who were able to hold on to their 1-0 lead and send most of the bumper 783 crowd home happy.

The Division One title looks Newton Aycliffe’s to lose but it’s still all to play for in the race for second place and a berth in the promotion play-off game against a team from Step 4.

Mike Snowdon