Foiur wins in a row for Ashington cricket

Willington were 131 all out with Ashington 136-3 in reply.

McCafferty said: “After losing our first game of the season, we have bounced back and put four victories together. Once you start winning, you get a bit of momentum and confidence and the latter in particular plays a massive part.

"Different players are contributing with match winning performances too. Obviously today the opening spell of bowling by Matty Collins set the tone and there was no real way back for Willington after he (Collins) took those early wickets (5-26). I also thought the rest of the bowling attack complimented Matty’s spell really well and kept the run rate down.”

He continued: “I was quite frustrated at times as to where the ball was being hit because it was quite difficult to set the field - but again you generally find that a team will fight back and Willington did that with a couple of big hits. From our point of view, it was a case of trying to tell our players to stay patient, knowing that a chance would be around the corner and thankfully it came. It was nice to see Cam Nichols performing. He bowled a lot better than the wickets column suggests (3-20) but he nevertheless picked up a few and thoroughly deserved it.”

McCafferty scored his second 50 in as many weeks - although the skipper tried to play down his own part in the win: “I feel in decent nick,” he said, “and it was a shame not to keep going after getting 50. I’m not the type of person who is happy with a half century – I’d rather go on and win the game. It’s nice to spend a bit of time in the middle - but I still have things to work on.”

The 30 year old continued: “It’s good to contribute and it’s about getting the team off to a good start whether you bat first or chase because it sets the game up. That’s what we were looking to do at a decent run rate which we did today and when we have got such talent down the order, if we can lay a foundation for them.”

Ashington are fourth top of the first division and McCafferty concluded: “I’m happy with the situation and we’ll keep trying to push on.”