Morpeth Town's away day woes continue with defeat at Ashton United
It was Morpeth’s away form that played a big part in their record-breaking eighth-placed finish last term; with 10 wins on the road, Town took 36 of their 62-point haul on their travels.
This season they’ve taken just one from a possible 24 so far, and boss Craig Lynch wants to see an uglier side to the Highwaymen after they went down 3-2 at Ashton United despite leading twice – and firing a late penalty over the bar.
“I’m just disappointed because I wanted to see a ‘nasty’ second half, I wanted to see us being a horrible team,” said Lynch.
Mitch Hancox bent a corner directly into the net to put Morpeth ahead in the 23rd minute and Josh Robson went close to adding a second when he headed just wide from another.
“I’m massively frustrated. I thought the first half was brilliant for shape. We got into some great areas but for me we’ve got to do better – we’ve got to turn the defender, we got into some one v. ones and we’re not doing enough to beat them. We should be being explosive in those areas,” he said.
Although Ashton drew level 10 minutes after the break when Sean Newton put away a spot-kick, Dan Myers headed the Highwaymen back in front.
“Unfortunately, the first 15 minutes of the second half we’ve looked like a different team. We showed great attitude to get back to 2-1 and I’m thinking ‘come on, please, let’s roll our sleeves up’ let’s show what we’re about,” added Lynch.
A head injury to Robson led to a lengthy delay and a late double from Enock Lusiama – who had, ironically, fouled him with a raised boot – led to Town’s seventh defeat on their travels.
“We’ve gifted them two goals from not marking on a set piece. Fair play, we’ve kept going again and won a penalty, Jamo’s stepped up and missed, he’s scored two or three this season.”
Rushall Olympic visit Craik Park on Saturday where Morpeth’s results have been much better and Billy Gordon, James and Nic Bollado were on target in their 3-0 win over Stocksbridge Park Steels last mid-week as they made it three wins on the bounce at home.
Middlesbrough u21 winger Frankie Coulson has been signed on a 28-day loan, with Ryan Chater going out to Heaton Stannington on a 28-day loan.