Report

The younger residents of NE7 might have been getting excited about the visit of Santa on Xmas day but there was also much excitement about the boxing day derby and relegation clash between 5^th bottom Heaton Stannington & 3^rd bottom Ashington. On a sunny & mild boxing day morning, 497 fans turned up for this important mid- season match. Unfortunately for the Stan there was to be no late Xmas present as although they took an early lead & faced 10 men for the last 25 minutes, they eventually lost 3-1 to Ashington. There were 4 changes from Saturday’s defeat at Belper with Cassap, Stephenson, Slaughter & Errington replacing Brass, Marriott, Spence & Thompson. There was a debut for new keeper Matthew Cassap who has signed on loan from Gateshead. Ex-Stan Marc Ellison started for Ashington while Jay Errington’s brother Kyle came off the bench for them.

The Stan started on the attack & had an effort cleared in the 2^nd minute. The 1^st 15 minutes was end to end but with no end product. Burn miss hit a shot in 6 minutes. 2 minutes later & a Stephenson cross was deflected for a corner from which Turnbull headed over the Ashington bar. An Ashington corner was cleared in 11 minutes as the action continued. In 16 minutes, Hopper advanced & was brought down just outside the Ashington box. In the 17^th minute Stephenson scored direct from the resulting free kick, for the 2^nd game in a row, as his shot went over the wall & into the net. Soon after, an Ashington free kick from just outside the Stan box bounced off the wall & the ball was then headed wide by a visiting player. Cassap easily caught an Ashington effort after 25 minutes. Both teams were still trying to attack & in 29 minutes the Stan Army thought their team were 2-0 up when Hopper passed the ball on the left wing to the advancing Groves whose shot deflected off the Ashington keeper & into the net but the flag was up for offside. In 33 minutes, a ball from a Stan free kick was headed just over by Hopper as they continued to try to increase their lead. In 39 minutes, an Ashington attack saw the ball crossed in front of the Stan goal, but it was missed by 2 Ashington players under pressure from Turnbull. Ashington equalised in 41 minutes when, from a corner, Cassap couldn’t hold onto the ball on the ground & it was forced into the net by Kneeshaw. In 44 minutes, a speculative looping long range effort by Lamb went just over the bar in between 2 other Stan attacks being cleared. In 48 minutes, a curving Ashington free kick from the edge of the Stan box went just wide at the far post.

Half time saw Walker replace Groves. A minute into the 2^nd half, & the Ashington keeper got to the ball before the advancing Hopper. Both teams were still trying to attack, although the Stan had more of the ball in the 1^st 10 minutes of the 2^nd half. In 50 minutes an Ashington attack was cleared followed by Lamb advancing with the ball into a busy Ashington box & he passed towards Stephenson but the ball was cleared. In 62 minutes, an Ashington shot was deflected for a corner. A minute later, from the corner, Ashington were 2-1 up when a scramble in the 6 yard box saw Almond put the ball into the Stan net. Cassap then punched clear from an Ashington free kick. In 68 minutes, Ashington were down to 10 men when Gilchrist was sent off after a quick 2^nd yellow card. In 74 minutes, the Ashington keeper got to the ball before sub Thompson. 5 minutes later, Hopper got round 2 Ashington players but his subsequent shot went over the bar. In 81 minutes, the Stan were 2 goals behind when Sampson shot from the edge of the box but although Cassap got his palm to the ball as he went backwards, he couldn’t stop it going into the net. The Stan kept the pressure on although Cassop had to catch a long range effort in 84 minutes. The Stan were still pressing & in 88 minutes a long ball to Burn saw him head towards the net but unfortunately an Ashington player managed to get back to clear off the line. Slaughter’s rebound shot went well over the bar. In 89 minutes, another ball was sent into the Ashington box but Hopper couldnt get to it. The Stan pressure continued although the last move of the game saw Cassap getting out to stop an Ashington counter attack.

So, it was not be a Christmas Cracker for the Stan. The result & others meant that the Stan dropped back into the relegation zone & are 2 points from safety. They are on the road again on New Year’s Day but luckily only up the Durham hills to Consett.

Kevin Mochrie

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