Saturday 3rd February 2007 - Ashton Athletic 1 Leek CSOB 3

Refereeing decisions are supposed to even themselves out over a season but the last two matches has seen Ashton plunge even deeper into deficit as the same referee that took charge of last week’s narrow win against Castleton once again showed an almost total disregard to consistency, equity and common sense, and with it put to an end Ashton’s mini revival. The failure by the referee to clamp down on persistent badgering by the Leek players for every decision throughout the match, even when it was 100% obviously not in favour of Leek infuriated the home management and supporters. Ultimately, and especially in the second half this led to an abundance of mistakes by the officials.

Despite this the match was in the opening period shaping into a hard and entertaining contest between two committed sides that is until the referee intervened and brandished a straight red card to Ashton’s Martin Rigby after just 31 minutes. The incident that led to the sending off took place 8 yards into the Ashton half as a long diagonal clearance from the Leek defensive flank split the Ashton back line. As Rigby and the Leek striker, Tarr turned to give chase Rigby’s hand on his opponents shoulder was rightly adjudged to be a foul but with recovering defender Peter Hitchen shaping to mop up the danger the referee blew for the foul and called up Rigby for his marching orders - for supposedly denying a goal scoring opportunity.

Now I know we have seen some spectacular long distance goals on the TV recently but as far as we have witnessed so far in NWCFL Division 2 scoring from 45 yards out is extremely unlikely and with defenders in reasonable proximity it is difficult to accept that the Leek striker would have been able to advance more than 30 yards with the ball, without being accosted by the recovering runs of the Ashton back line.

The incident was undoubtedly a huge turning point in the match but Ashton can remain positive as even with a man down chances were created that could have affected the result, and the work rate of the 10 men was a great effort in the circumstances.

The game had started in furious fashion as with two bad tackles by Leek defenders on Pat Aspinall, and then another shortly afterwards on Simon Gallanders were treated very leniently by referee Steve Parker. End to end attacks then broke out as first Leek, through Mark Fox and then Paul Rutter shot wide. Ashton responded with a Tom Potter break that led to a corner, and from the set piece the ball fell to Adam White whose low shot was well saved by keeper Gavin Deauville.

On 16 minutes Ashton were awarded a free kick after Simon Gallanders was up ended again and a superb delivery by Tom Potter reached Matt Mahoney whose powerful header could not be held by Deauville and Richard Sharpe pounced on the loose ball to give Ashton the lead. 1-0

It was all Ashton for the next 10 minutes as Leek were rocked by Ashton’s positive start. Steve Rothwell hit a 35 yard screamer that cleared Deauville but was denied by the crossbar. Another Tom Potter free kick once again found Mahoney whose downward header was held onto this time by Deauville to prevent Ashton from increasing the lead.

As the half wore on a series of soft free kicks were conceded by Ashton that allowed Leek to build some pressure of their own. The Ashton defence held firm, dealing well with the aerial threat until a long throw from the Leek right wing was not cleared first time and the ball was allowed to reach Leek skipper Dan Hyde unmarked just inside the box and his early shot beat Brobbin to even up the scores in the 30^th minute. 1- 1

Then came the sending off and after Rigby left the field the Ashton team were forced to regroup and dig in to prevent Leek from scoring again. Just before the half time break more strange refereeing decisions as a couple of innocuous challenges by Ashton players attracted yellow cards - clearly Mr Parker felt a little pushing and shoving was far more deserving of cards than the two footed tackles around the knee/waist by Leek players earlier in the half. HT 1-1

With defensive resilience a must for the second half Ashton got off to the worst possible start as Leek were awarded a dubious free kick 15 yards into the Ashton half. From a deep cross Paul Rutter ‘s effort was well blocked by keeper Joe Brobbin but his defence was slower to react to clear the danger allowing John Powell the easiest of tap ins after 50 minutes.

As the lingering fog started to threatened the completion of the match Ashton tried to get back in it straight after the kick off with good passing through the midfield but the extra defender kept the attacks at bay despite the tireless efforts of lone striker Richard Sharpe.

Leek however had their tales up and poured forward when given the chance, determined to kill off the home side. This they did, but again in controversial circumstances, as initially Nick Lewis and Jake Johnson combined well to create an opening down the right. The subsequent shot from the edge of the box was well block by Brobbin and turned away onto the edge of the box. Leek’s Dan Hyde was once again first to the ball and as the Ashton defence moved out to play the Leek attackers off side, Hyde let fly and with Brobbin severely unsighted by at least two Leek players standing 2 yards off side the keeper had no chance to save and Hyde celebrated his second of the match. The Ashton players and supporters demanded off side but neither the referee nor his assistant gave any thought whatsoever to the appeals. 1-3

The Ashton 10 men never gave in, a characteristic shown in abundance in many matches this season and several chances created in the last quarter of the game might on another day have given Ashton some reward from the game. Meanwhile Leek seemed to take the foot off the gas and let Ashton back into the game.

Richard Sharpe, a threat throughout the 90 minutes broke clear in the Leek box and his great effort was superbly saved by Deauville in the 61^st minute. Then Matt Mahoney burst into the box and was brought down by a last ditch challenge that prevented him from shooting and to Ashton’s surprise the referee pointed to the spot. Unfortunately for Ashton the Gallanders’ penalty kick was saved by Deauville and with it went the chance of a decent foothold in the game.

An Adam White shot after 65 minutes also tested the keeper whilst several other good attacking raids were thwarted by no nonsense defending by Leek.

Ashton had a second shout for a penalty came after 75 minutes as lively substitute Bennett was upended in the box, a more blatant penalty than the first one – but no - this time the referee waved play on.

With the fog worsening Leek then spent the last 10 minutes collecting a few yellow cards for late and dangerous tackles that the Ashton players were fortunate not to sustain serious injury from. At least one tackle was worthy of a straight red card but as with several challenges in the first 5 minutes leniency was the name of the game for the referee - for the Leek players anyway!

The final chapter in the Comedy of Errors from the men in black came as Ashton’s Bennett broke clear down the right flank, latching onto a great through ball but before cutting in on goal he was stopped in his tracks when the referee spotted the linesmans flag and blew for Richard Sharpe being in an off side position 50 yards away on the left wing!

As the teams lined up for the restart in play the referee was asked what he had given and the response was “I don’t know”. The Leek keeper decided a goal kick would be a good idea, and the game and several Ashton players limped to the final whistle.

The MoM for Ashton was Richard Sharpe with an all action performance as a lone striker for the lion’s share of the match whilst Leek skipper earned his team’s mantle for his two goals and good midfield play.

Ashton’s reserve team had a much better day returning with all three points from the trip to Darwen as goals from Paul McVeigh, John Parkinson and Mike Hamilton secured a 3-1 win.

Ashton’s first team will also make the trip to Darwen next Saturday 10^th February hoping for a similar result, whilst the reserves are at home to Chadderton, both 3pm KO.

END