Ashington FC

 I decided to head upto the North East on a pre booked trip, after seeing a BBC documentary about the club and the day to day struggles the owners (all fans that just do their best) had just paying the wages on a month to month basis. Some very historic figures from football years gone by hail from Ashington including the Charlton brothers and Bobby Robson. I headed upto Newcastle on the flixbus and caught a train to Ashington for the bargain price of £2 each way, the line only reopened to passenger trains last year in 2025. Upon arrival in Ashington I drew big parallels with Workington, where I used to live, in that it was a huge ex mining area that has lacked much significant investment for a long time. The high Street was tired looking, with country wide problem of too many vape shops, Turkish barbers, takeaways and convenience stores. However their did look to be some really decent, proper cafes, an excellent looking home bakery and a packed out pub. Sadly I had already eaten so didn't sample any but would on a return visit now I know they are there. The game was the extra preliminary round of the F.A. Cup, a day that always has a special feeling in the air to me, the winner would pocket roughly £1.1k with the losers taking home a couple of hundred quid. The opposition were Horden C.W from the northern league. I was expecting nothing less than a convincing home win.

I was at the ground in good time, at nearly a 2 mile walk from the train station I was pleased to arrive, in the searing summer heat. There is an excellent car park if you are driving, however there are pay and display machines, so check if payment is needed. The turnstile was open at 1320 so I was straight in which was good. I sat at the picnic benches and gathered myself after the long walk. I wandered round to the food van behind the goal when it opened and purchased an excellent hot dog with onions for £4, strangely they weren't aloud to sell cold drinks, presumably a club rule to maximise bar sales, so into the bar I went for a couple of bottles of water priced at £1.50 each. I went to the club shop and purchased a pin badge from a range of 3 different designs and priced at £4 and then took a seat in the shade in the excellent stand on half way. The crowd was building and was announced as 465, a good number had travelled from Horden in what will be a good boost to club coffers. I was pleased to see a full ex York City strike force for Ashington with Scott Fenwick and Liam Henderson lining up as numbers 9 and 10.

Ashington went ahead in the sixth minute with a smart finish from inside the area into the bottom corner. The difference in class was evident with Horden really having to push to make anything happen and they were living off scraps really with Ashington not having to get out of second gear really. They added a second just before half time, the Horden number 2 slipped on the ball, Ashington got the ball and ran clean through, making no mistake finishing past the keeper.

That was how the game ended, Ashington having several chance to extend their lead in the second half but in truth they seemed to know they had done enough and it was a comfortable largely uneventful second half.

The journey home was horrendous, firstly my train was delayed from Ashington, missing my flixbus so I booked a train to York, couldn't get on the bus at York as it was full, so I had to wait an hour for the next rail replacement, luckily I got on, although arriving a lot later than I should have.