Ashington beaten by Wallsend despite excellent defensive work
Ashington went down to a 17-7 home defeat against Wallsend on Saturday.
Wallsend, playing with the elements behind them, dominated early possession and territory and eventually took the lead with an unconverted try after 18 minutes.
The visitors deservedly extended their lead after 30 minutes with a converted try.
Ash had already lost fly half Jarvis to injury and then lost fullback Thomas Luke just before half time whilst making a desperate try saving tackle.
Ash, with the wind and rain behind them started the second half a bit more brightly, but lost Newman and reshuffled their pack with McMorn coming on at prop.
After 58 minutes Andrew Reynolds scored in the corner after a quickly taken tap penalty, Arkle adding a fantastic touch line conversion to give a 7-12 score with over 20 minutes remaining.
Unfortunately the fight back was short lived, with Ash again forced to defend and failing to use the elements when the opportunity arose.
Near the end Wallsend extended their lead with a third try when Ashington knocked on trying to run the ball out of their own half.
Only excellent defence, particularly from Van Den Berg, skipper Harmer, Townsley and Ashington’s man of the match Mike Stevens kept them in the game.
Next week Ash have a difficult home fixture against second placed Alnwick 2s.