Ashington have secured their place in next season’s Northern Premier League East Division.

Josh Gilchrist scored the first goal and claimed an assist for the second as Ashington claimed a 2-0 victory over Brighouse Town on Saturday.

The three points banished relegation fears once and for all, speaking afterwards, Gilchrist said: “It’s a great feeling. It’s been a long hard season – we’ve had some good times and some poor times and we know we probably haven’t been where we would like to be.

“But credit to the lads because we’ve stuck in and dug deep. We didn’t really want it to go to the last game to secure our place in the division for next season. We had a chance and a great opportunity to do it today [at Brighouse] and we took it.”

For his goal, Gilchrist said: “Ollie Thompson has put the ball across the box. I tried to take a touch as the pitch was lively and it bobbled, and it was just about getting a good contact on the ball. Fortunately, I hit it well and it has gone in the top corner.”

Five minutes later the striker played the ball through for Chris Reid to double the lead, and Gilchrist said: “I think it’s important that after going 1-0 up you get the next goal because if they end up pinching one, you’re on the back foot straight away. We kept doing the basics right. The message at half-time was, ‘Let’s not start to rush things and just keep things right’ – and that’s what we did.”