Andy Gowens felt that this was a game that Whitley should really have won after taking a first half lead through Kieran Brannen. “I thought it was two points dropped again really. We started off well but didn’t really get into the last third. Some of the choices we made weren’t quite on, like the delivery in the box. Eventually we got the goal and we looked on top, pretty much comfortable. The second half was ‘bitty’ really, then they came into it again. We gave the ball away and got caught on the break, one ball across goal then at ones each we were chasing after it a little bit. Again we we still created chances but it was wrong decision making around the box. When we should have crossed we didn’t, when we should have shot we didn’t. It’s frustrating, little things really, a lot is down to that decision making where it’s costing two points when we should be finishing teams off.
“They (Ashington) were just going route one and trying to get on the end of it, which is what we knew they’d do anyway. We tried to play controlled football, probably in the wrong place at times and that’s how we gave away the goal.”
The manager was impressed with the performance of defender Luke Taylor who returned to the side for this game. “Luke did fantastic, you couldn’t fault the lad. I thought the sending off was a bit harsh really but when you leave the ground you get sent off, that’s the way it is. I think he got a bit frustrated because he had a bad bounce and mis-controlled the tackle. He didn’t catch him maliciously, it wasn’t over the top, he just went for the ball after he mis-controlled it and it always looks worse when it’s a big lad against a smaller one. Kieran was fantastic, he did really well on Wednesday, he scored then and made a big impact and scored again today, he’s done really well!
“There are loads of positives to take from the game but you tend to concentrate on the negatives when you don’t win after you’re 1-0 up and you give it away.”
