Yellows Return To Winning Way's

Both teams went in to the game knowing that the 3 points on offer were of great importance to each teams survival bid, with that in mind the playing surface which is usually in great condition was something of a let down, looking like it had not been touched for a while with divets and clumps of turf making football hard to play.

Ashton decided to play into the wind that was blowing from goalmouth to goalmouth and were soon attacking the Stone goal with considrable ease and could have been two goals up within the first 20 minutes with the Stone goalkeeper pulling off a great save to thwart Martyn Jackson and minutes later the post saving the stone keeper with Connor Gately striking the right hand up right. Stone were forced to play on the break for most of the game, but they did however force Dave Moran into a smart save low down to his left hand side. but apart from that it was all Ashton and more pressure forced the Stone defence back into there own penalty box, Ashton manager Jimmy McBride must have been wondering when the break through would arrive. Then totaly out of the blue Callum Jones the Yellows centre half was shown the red card for a lunge after initially being fouled seconds earlier leaving Ashton to play the remaining 50 minutes with 10 men

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The second half got underway with Danny Smith making way for centre half Rob Flint who had only just returned from a suspension himself. the first 10 minutes was a little open and quite even with Stone trying to make the one man advantage pay but once the yellows had settled into there new formation it was one way traffic, the same sort of luck had seemed to follow them into the second half with Connor Anderson hitting a post and two last ditch tackles denying him shots on goal.However the first goal came on 56 minutes with Justin Yun's left wing cross evading everyone and settling in the back of the net, this seemed to enable the Ashton players to play with more freedom and the second goal followed in the 59th minute with Connors Anderson and Gatley linking up for the latter to head home and make it 2-0, Stone were now camped out in there own half and the Ashton pressure was relentless so it was no suprise when the third goal arrived on 80 minutes, the Stone keeper sold his left back short and Connor Anderson nicked the ball from him and headed goalwards only to be upended by the defender who recieved a straight red card Anderson picked himself up and smashed the penalty home to make it 3-0 with ten minutes to play. Ashton decided it was time to intoduce there final two substitutes with Jay Waldren replacing Sam Coulter and Paul Hynes replacing Connor Gately in fact it was Hynes who blasted home the fourth goal on 89 minutes to give the scoreline a more realistic look.

The final whistle went and the host club looked relieved to see the changing rooms, while the Ashton players were more than happy to be taking all the points back to Lancashire.

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