As first away games of the season go, we couldn’t have really asked for a better opponent than Ashton. A decent journey, good locals and the site of one of our best ever Awaydays, a fun day out was always going to be had regardless of the result.
To my surprise, getting the required numbers for a bus was actually fairly easy for this one. Last year despite winning 4-2 at home to Gloucester on the opening day of the season, we struggled to get the numbers needed for a bus to Warrington the week after for the opening away trip. In fact I’m pretty sure we lost money on that one.
However this year, despite a rather disastrous pre-season campaign, we managed to get over 40 people signed up for this one! Which makes no sense at all, though I certainly won’t complain.
While I was planning on stopping in on the Friday night, in the vain hope I might finally shake off some lingering man flu, I was eventually coerced into going over to The Terrace for a few pints. Thankfully though I managed to keep it respectable and made it home by 11pm (ish) with only a few vodka’s consumed. I did try to press gang some of the locals into coming onto the bus in the morning for a day on the drink, though I may have been wasting my time with Harrison.
When I finally did get back home though, getting to sleep was a struggle. Despite the disappointing summer we’ve had, I was weirdly looking forward to getting back on the road with everyone, and was weirdly excited for the match itself. While I hadn’t been that confident during the week, I’d began to feel a twinge of confidence ahead of the game. No doubt helped by the Red Stripe and cheap vodka.
As the morning of our grand return to the NPL finally came, I awoke hangover free and was able to actually organise myself with time to spare for once. Minus the domino cards of course!
Ellen was kind enough to send her ‘driver’ round to collect me, and we headed off down to Blyth to meet the lads and chat some shite. The Wallaw’s breakfasts are notoriously hit or miss, and this time it was mostly a hit, bar the eggs, which were somehow tougher than one of the Gildea’s.
With the breakfast consumed, it was time to heard everyone onto the bus and get ready read for the off. Since the end of the season we hadn’t seen a lot of the lads, so it was great to catch up with everyone properly. Apart from Sellar of course, who in a vain attempt to hide his fading fringe had grown a strange gingery mullet.
We managed to get away nice and early, and headed into High Pit and Delaval to pick up the delinquents. With everyone aboard, it was time to head down to Manc land.
Bar a hold up at the Tyne Tunnel, the journey down to Ashton flew by for the most part. With Kirk’s boombox playing away, everyone swapped stories from over the summer and began to speculate about what the season ahead might have in store for us.
As for pre-game predictions, most weren’t confident. For some reason I did fancy a repeat of the opening day trip to Histon in 2011, that being a 2-2 draw with Spartans scoring a part of late goals late on to rescue a point. Turns out I wouldn’t be far wrong.
An hour and a half into the journey though, the lads remembered Uddgren had said he was trying to do a year fully sober. A few minutes of ‘friendly encouragement’ later though, he finally caved…
A call into the services was required for this trip, where we bumped into Stockton’s first team, a load of Scarborough fans and Spartans team bus. We also had to witness a slightly inebriated Ben Savage devour a KFC, which was absolutely fucking terrifying sight to behold. I’ve never seen anyone inhale chicken like that.
As we hit the road again for the final stretch, it was quickly apparent that the aircon had packed in, and began leaking ?! In the nearly 15 years I’ve been doing busses, that’s probably the first time that’s ever happened. Needless to say, the final 30 minute drive to the ground was a bit hot and sweaty. On the plus side, the view was picturesque!
Eventually arriving in Ashton for about 1pm, we were greeted with a warm welcome by their supporters and the supporters club in particular, who had put some free bait on for us all.
With some scran consumed and some delightful pints of Cruzcampo in hand. It was time for the darts competition to begin…
Being absolutely shite at darts and too nervous to watch, I ducked out and went play chase the ace, getting to the final only to lose to Seaton Delaval’s richest man. Not that he bragged about it all.
After a bit of craic with Luke and some of the local lads, we briefly caught up all the other Spartans fans who’d travelled up from different pockets of the country. While they were keen to catch up and chat about the new signings and latest goings on the club, most of them were keen to find out the result of the darts!
Needless to say, we didn’t win…
After that disappointment, we grabbed another pint and headed out onto the terraces ready for the match while trying to work out what team we were putting out.
Bond of course began in goal, with Joe Oliver at right back, Connor Pani was shoehorned in at centre back alongside Ben Milburn with Abrahart at left back. Woods, Donaldson and Dev’s began in the centre, with Gomes on the left and Cornet on the right and Mitch Curry up front.
With the teams out and beers in hand, we took our spot up behind the goal to watch Nobby Solano’s new look Blyth Spartans for the first time.
The opening exchanges saw the ball in Spartans half a fair bit, with both Jason Gilchrist and Darius Osei wasting some decent half chances.
Blyth were rather compact in defence though, with Milburn in particular looking impressive. Woods and Deverdics were passing the ball around well in midfield, and the whole side looked a lot more switched on than they had in recent weeks.
Mitch Curry caused a scare when he got down the right flank and chipped a cross in, but nobody was able to get on the end of it and make anything of it.
Blyth continued to try and undo Ashton’s backline, and they would be rewarded for their efforts moments later when Ashton couldn’t clear their lines and the ball was fed into Dev’s on the edge of the box, who fired home to put us 1-0 up (and top of the league), to the delight of the away end!
Ashton stepped up their game a bit after that, with both Gilchrist and Osei again wasting chances. The ball flashed across the face of goal a few times as well, but the hosts couldn’t really make anything of their chances.
On the half hour mark Connor Pani went into the ref’s book for a foul that looked like it might have been a penalty, but thankfully the referee awarded them a free kick right on the edge of the box.
Gilchrist went close yet again not long after, but his header ended up scraping the bar and landing on the roof off the net. Gomes caused Ashton a few problems, but Blyth didn’t really create any clear cut chances in the later part of the half.
Still, we’d held firm and did well to hold onto the lead going into half time.
The second half would see Ashton come flying out the traps, creating numerous chances early on, hitting the post just 3 mins into the half. Gilchrist had the ball in the back of net 55 min’s in, but it was offside.
Gilchrist finally got his goal 10 minutes later though, finishing off a good move by the home side.
They kept up the tempo though and continued to have Spartans under the cosh, going close with a few efforts over the next 10 minutes or so – though the Spartans defence and Bond were still doing well and for the most part, looked confident. Ashton were trying to catch out Abrahart by targeting his side, but he did a decent enough job of blocking crosses.
It would be 2-1 to the hosts moments later though, with Osei finally getting on the scoresheet after being played through the middle and slotting home.
Thankfully though Spartans reacted to that goal almost instantly, with Savage, Gomes and Cornet straight up the pitch to harass the opposition defence. They were almost caught out though with so many bodies up front, but Bond pulled out a great save to deny Gilchrist a second goal from point blank range.
The equaliser came when Cornet managed to drag the ball out of the corner after the referee denied Spartans a free kick, picking out Woods in the middle who was given all the time he needed to slot home to make it 2-2.
Dan Savage went close a few moments later with an effort, but his shot would be nestled into the side netting. Him and Gomes had been linking up really well when he got on, and they had the better of the Ashton defence who were pressing high up the pitch to try and bag a winner.
Neither side could force a winner though, and the points were shared, to the delight of the away end.
On the day, Ashton probably had the better of Spartans, especially in the second half. That being said, the work rate and sheer effort the lads put in was phenomenal. They stood firm for long spells against some of the best forwards the league has to offer, passed the ball all around well created some good chances, which they made the most of.
While it is early days, and we’ll no doubt be in for some much tougher days in the months to come, there was plenty of positives to take from that one.
As ever after the game it was time to grab some cans and head back on the bus for the long(ish) journey home. While the aircon hadn’t been fixed, the roof windows were now slightly open, so we thankfully weren’t on course for a repeat of Hereford away in 2018.
The usual array of bus karaoke, shite tunes and pissed up craic was had after what had been yet another successful day out. Im sure a lot more happened on the way home that’s worth mentioning, but as I was Christ knows how many pints deep at this point, I don’t recall much of it at present in all honesty
The only delay on the way back was a quick pit stop at Leeming Bar Services, as Gary Allen was desperate for a shite. Despite that, we still managed to make it back to The Terrace for about 8:30pm – so that gave us plenty of time to have a few more drinks and cap off the night in style.
So that pretty much wraps up get another day out on the fun bus! Big thank you to everyone that came down yesterday, it’s always hugely appreciated and I know the team appreciate it as well. A huge thank you to the Ashton United fans as well, who were great hosts.
Stay tuned on bus news for Worksop later on!
Oh and aye, the ‘CLONE-A-WILLY’ mold your own didlo still remains unclaimed…
