Haslam’s reaction to victory at Ashington

Nathan Haslam gave us his reaction to Tuesday’s win at Ashington  “I’m really happy with the result, the lads are as well. I think it could have been a little bit more comfortable than it was. We showed a quality tonight that we’ve been looking for which is winning second balls, scrapping and doing the hard part of the game. Then at the end when they pushed we’ve seen it out well. (In the first half) the only negative was we only scored one goal. The game could really have been put to bed and it would have been a lot more comfortable. Lady luck was on our side a little bit as well, we made three mistakes in the first half and we nearly paid for all three. Dan’s done well obviously with the penalty; that was the defining point. We showed character to respond from that, young Proctor had gone on one on one and had a heavy touch and this time he’s gone through and put it away. He’s actually pulled his hamstring but has still gone on so adrenalin has seen him through and it was good finish for him.
“The second goal was really important and at the point when we scored that goal you think we’re ok now but with the hand ball (and the second penalty) they’re back in it and as they say goals change games. Then they’ve got nothing to lose and they threw the kitchen sink at it even though they only had ten men for a period so we had to roll our sleeves up and defend resolutely and that’s what we did.
“The cards, without criticising the referee, I think perhaps he was a little bit too trigger happy with the cards. There were a lot of fairly contested balls but it is what it is, and we’ve just got to deal with it. I’m just happy with our lads. We’ve been crying out for them to be harder going for the second balls and for the 90 minutes they’ve done that and it’s a massive improvement from us.
“With the injuries we’re not getting any luck, they all seem to be first half injuries and we have to change the shape of the team, but (James Proctor) he’s pulled his hamstring so could be out a couple of weeks, it could be more depending on how much the tear is. But it’s a squad game as I keep saying so it gives someone else a chance.
(Luke Salmon) “was great, he was solid. We asked him to be rigid and he’s played to instructions. He’s had a good game; he’s done the basics right all night so credit to him.”