Whickham 5 – 3 Ashington FC: never say die attitude leads to three points for Whickham

Whickham came from behind three times to continue their unbeaten run at home under Tony Fawcett in a game which saw seven second half goals.

In a first half where Nathan Greenwood had the opposition defence on strings down the left hand side, Ashington scored from a corner to lead 1-0 at HT.

Whickham responded just before the hour mark as Kaleb Young slotted his free kick into the far corner to equalise, which started a frenzy of six goals in just 30 minutes.

Ashington scored from a sweeping counter attack to retake the lead, only for Scott Robson to equalise two minutes later after being played through by Dale Burrell from defence.

Ashington took the lead again with 15 minutes to go as they capitalised on a rebound to tap into an empty net, before Danny Barlow scored his first for the club after a dangerous ball into the box was only half cleared.

Robson and Barlow linked up for Whickham’s fourth, the former’s cross deflected and Barlow doubling his tally, before Nathan Greenwood ended the game with a goal of the season contender.

He picked up a clearance from the back just inside his own half, then proceeded to leave defenders trailing in his wake with some dazzling dribbling before cooly slotting home to secure the win for Whickham.

While the lads will naturally be disappointed that it’s another game without a clean sheet, they’ll be happy that they didn’t give up and showed great fight to come back from behind on multiple occasions and continue to strive for promotion at the end of the season.

Whickham: Hanson, Elliott, Dunn, Burrell, Galbraith, Howard, Young, Peareth (C), Robson, Greenwood, Barlow

Subs: Below, Priest, Bisset (61), Jasper (82′), Atkinson (61′)

MOTM: Barlow & Burrell