Junior Football

On a mild day in Northumberland Kingston Park (division 1) travelled to Ashington (division 3) in a NABC challenge cup 1st round match.

With a place in the second round at stake Kingston came out of the blocks all guns blazing.

Kingston had a couple of attempts in the first ten minutes but thanks to some good saves by home keeper Warren Cooper and some awful finishing kept the scores level.

But Kingston's pressure paid off in the 17th minute as a rare slip by Chris Long allowed no.8 to roam free into the box and easily place the ball into the corner of the net.

1 suddenly became 2 as  Striker Arran Thirtle passed it to Captain Sean Day whose clearance fell straight too the feet of the left winger and he ran down the wing and delivered an excellent cross which Kingston's no.9 finished with no problem.

By the end of the half it was 5-0 to visitors but Ashington manager Tony Bell soon switched things round!

It nearly paid off as Ashington were out of the blocks the fastest.

Ashington kept chasing everything down and passed the ball more fluently throughout the second half.

Referee Mr G.Cook give a free kick on the edge of the area and when the ball was crossed in Ashington's centre forward when tumbling too the ground after challenges by three Kingston players but the ref waved the desperate appeals for a pen (by the no.14) away, to the disguist of Thirtle.

It went from bad to worse for Ashington with two quick goals in the space of ten minutes sealed Ashington's fate.

Tony Bell then switched things around again as he put Thirtle into the centre of defence too partner Long and moved Martin Bell up front for the last half an hour and it worked as Thirtle was challenging for everything and getting in the way of everything.

Cook was terrific as he was trying to lead the team and was talking to the team. He didn't give the ball away once and he was deadly down the wings.