Storton baffled by his team's lack of 'bottle'

Ashton United 3

Manager Trevor Storton believes Bradford Park Avenue are better equipped for promotion this season than they were 12 months ago, despite being beaten by one of their main UniBond Division One promotion rivals.

It was an afternoon of frustration for Storton, who was puzzled by his players' approach to such to such an important match.

Yet Avenue can have no complaints at being beaten by the side that were the only team to win a league match at Horsfall last season.

After a bright opening half hour, Avenue allowed themselves to be overpowered by an uncompromising team who not only imposed their considerable physical presence on the game but also showed no little skill in the second half.

Storton was upset that Avenue missed the chance to open up an eight-point gap between themselves and fourth-placed Ashton, especially as they went into the match only one point behind leaders Vauxhall Motors after winning five of their previous six matches.

Instead Ashton are now only two points behind Avenue in a close race for the two promotion places.

Avenue ultimately paid the price for not taking advantage of their dominance.

They were the better and more dangerous side in the first half hour, but could not make the breakthrough.

The best chance fell to Mark Hancock after 27 minutes when he miskicked with the goal at his mercy after right back, former Leeds United reserve Andrew Quinn, found him unmarked with a defence-splitting pass.

But Storton is convinced the referee made a mistake just before that when he ruled Jason Maxwell offside when he hammered the ball into the net after goalkeeper Andrew Johnston couldn't hold Chris Dolby's 20-yard free-kick.

"I don't think Jason was offside," he said, "and I told the officials so.

"To score the first goal would have made such a lot of difference to us. For some reason our players seem to need to score a goal before they start picking themselves up.

"One goal would have been enough to set us going.

"I want us to be more positive. If we are and believe in ourselves more I don't think we should have a problem.

"On the day they wanted it more than we did, especially after that opening spell. We have got to win the battles and there were not enough of our players who wanted to do that. They got their foot in and stopped us from playing.

"I also think we chose the wrong options. We played too many high balls, instead of getting the ball down to play. I am looking for more craft in midfield. We have a tendency to give the ball away too much.

"I am disappointed at the result, but I am not too disappointed at the way the season is going. We have progressed every year and we look more like a promotion side than we did last season."

Ashton made Avenue pay the price for not making the most of their early dominance by taking the lead after 37 minutes when tall defender Paul France headed the ball into the net from a corner.

Ashton began the second half so positively it was no surprise that they increased their lead after 59 minutes through Gareth Hamlet after goalkeeper Gavin Kelly couldn't hold a hard, low shot from the highly effective Chris Cornelly.

Storton used all three substitutes as he tried to get something out of the game, and one of them Martin Thompson provided a great chance for another substitute Dean Calcutt.

Johnston denied him with a diving save, and Avenue's only reward was a penalty a minute from the end. Calcutt was brought down in the box and Mark Hancock scored from the spot, but it was too late to affect the result.