Report

Consett suffered their second defeat in four days when they were beaten 1-0 by a battling Ashington side – finishing the game with only nine men.

It was a night when their frustrations boiled over against opponents desperate for points to climb away from the bottom four. Veteran midfielders Calvin Smith and Marc Costello both saw red after being shown second yellow cards late in the game.

Consett had seen a string of decisions go against them, including a penalty appeal, and home players escaping punishment for offences which earned cautions for the visitors.

Consett manager Jason Miller made two changes to the side which lost to Bradford at the weekend, with Ben Ramsey and Ewan McGowan coming in for Matty Todd and Lewis Leech.

Ashington had two senior players, Karl Ross and Marc Ellison, as interim managers after Nick Gray left at the end of January after only four months in charge. They lost their previous two homes games to top pair Redcar and Emley, but won at play-off hopefuls Garforth at the weekend to drag themselves out of the bottom four.

In a scrappy first half, the home side should have scored in the 11th minute after Ryan Wombwell and Louis Burns set up Rory Powell, but the full-back dragged a first-time shot wide from 16 yards.

At the other end, Consett might have had a penalty a minute later when Donny Holdsworth seemed to be pulled back by the arm by Ryan Donaldson after he flicked the ball past him, but nothing was given.

On 20 minutes Brendon Daniels tried his luck from 25 yards but was well off target, then Will Constantin saw a shot deflected for a corner after a good link-up with Ewan McGowan. At the other end Craig Spooner took a pass from Wombwell but curled a right-footed effort wide.

Consett’s best move of the game came seven minutes before half-time when a slick one-two between Holdsworth and Constantin saw the No 9 bring a good low save from the keeper.

Ashington should have taken the lead in the 42nd minute, when Josh Gilchrist went unpunished for elbowing Charlie Exley as they contested a through ball and set up Spooner, who fired wide, and it remained 0-0 at the break.

Half-time: Ashington 0 Consett 0

The home side had shaded the first half, but Consett came out with renewed purpose for the second half, and began to enjoy much more of the attacking play.

McGowan created a decent chance to break the deadlock three minutes in, some nimble footwork taking him through a crowd of players at the edge of the box, but he couldn’t keep his shot down.

Ashington took the lead in the 53rd minute with a goal befitting of a game lacking in real quality. Smith was booked for a foul on halfway as he halted a counter-attack, and the resulting free-kick was pumped into the Consett box. When they failed to deal with it, Chris Reid bundled the ball home from close range for his first goal for the Colliers.

Manager Jason Miller rang the changes, bringing on four subs in the last 15 minutes in a bid to inject some fresh attacking intent into his side.

They huffed and puffed without creating a lot against some determined Ashington defending, and their already-difficult task became much harder in the 76th minute when Smith was shown a second yellow card for a foul, followed by the inevitable red. It was only his third in 578 games for Consett, with the first ironically in a 4-3 cup defeat at Ashington in April 2022.

Daniels saw a header dip wide and McGowan was denied a penalty after being dragged to the ground at a set piece, and a bad night got even worse when Costello was shown a second yellow card deep into added time, then his third red card of the season.

It was a night when little went right for Consett, who remain 9th in the table, with back-to-back away trips to Yorkshire to come as they try to keep their receding play-off hopes alive.

MATCH REPORT: GARY WELFORD
PICTURES: KENNY TAYLOR & KEITH MARLEY