GARY MIDDLETON has praised his Ashington FA Cup heroes but warned them they must “come back down to Earth” and not underestimate Stokesley on Saturday.
The Colliers beat Conference North title hopefuls Guiseley in the FA Cup third qualifying round at the weekend and now have a tough task away to Conference side Grimsby Town on Saturday, October 29 in the next round.
But they return to Northern League matters this weekend, and against whipping boys Stokesley, the Ashington boss says his side must not allow complacency to enter their game.
“We’ll have to come back down to Earth after Saturday but good teams do that and we’ll have to,” he said. “We did that after we beat Vauxhall Motors in the last round, we were in a similar situation and got a result. So we just have to deal with that and do the same again.”
Reflecting on Saturday’s win over Guiseley, Middleton added: “I thought we started great and were by far the better team in the first half. We knew they were strong in the middle of the park, and we had a gameplan to match them up like for like in there, which worked well.
“That was their strength, their midfield three dictate the game and that was where the game was going to be won. But the three lads (Andy Dugdale, Mark O’Dea and Andy Johnson) had a smashing game in there. It was just a really workmanlike performance.
“Then when we got on the ball I thought we caused problems going the other way. We deservedly took the lead and should have come in 2-0 up, when their lad cleared one off the line. So we were a little bit disappointed at half-time not to have got a second.
“We told the lads at half-time just to keep playing the way they’d been playing. Yes, they would have spells when they’d put us under a lot of pressure but we stuck at it and defended well for 45 minutes.
“I didn’t think we were as much of a threat going forward in the second half as we had been in the first, possibly because they pushed us back.
“But apart from the last five minutes and in injury time, when we looked a little bit ragged, I wasn’t overly concerned.
“That’s two teams we’ve knocked out from the Conference North and what massive giant-kills they were, playing teams three leagues above us.
“We’ve made light of that difference and that’s down to the lads and the performances they’ve put in.”