Ashby furious over penalty decision that ended Trophy campaign

MARGATE boss Barry Ashby once again rues missed chances as his club were knocked out of the FA Carlsberg Trophy yesterday afternoon, writes Steve Wells.

An early strike from Harry Hunt ensured fellow Ryman Premier League side Hendon booked their place into the second qualifying round, picking up £2,300 in prize money in the process.

“Same old story I’m afraid,” a frustrated Ashby told www.margate-fc.com.  “Again, we created a lot of chances again.

“We will come to the stage when we’ll score and someone will take a hammering. But the long it goes on, people lose a bit of confidence.

“I don’t like losing anytime, but at least we lost in the right manner. We went to the death; we created a lot of chances, played some good football at times. It just wasn’t our day.”

Cleary disappointed with the result, Ashby, at least, felt that the attitude of the players was right for the Hartsdown Park clash.

“Not just disappointed, we all felt humiliated and pretty much ashamed after our performance against Worthing in the (FA) Cup, and we wanted to put that right today and I thought we went about it in the right way and the boys put on a decent show.”

The controversial incident in the game arrived on 86 minutes when Ryan Peters was brought down inside the area but appeals for a spot kick from the players, supporters and the Margate bench were waved a way by the referee.

“(I thought) it is a stonewall penalty. Gary McCann (Hendon manager) after the game said, it’s a penalty, Ash. All their bench (said), it’s a penalty.

“I’m bitterly disappointed because my boys have given their all again. We’d loved to have been in the hat in a cup (competition). We desperately wanted to get there after our performance against Worthing.

“Yeh, we’ve missed chances; yeh we should have done better at certain situations and things like that.”

But today, a penalty opportunity would have given the Blues a chance – that they deserved, based on their form throughout the 90 minutes – to have earned a replay.

In addition to the number of chances created by the Blues, the manager is also pleased with the performance of the now established back four of Ryan Peters, Dan Young, Jack Parkinson and Dan Kerrigan.

Ashby said: “I’ve always said if you can keep your back four (together) and can keep clean sheets – maybe (just) let the odd goal in – you’ve always got a chance in the game,” said the former Gillingham ace.

Speaking about the goalkeeping situation at the club, Ashby explained: “The longer we can keep those boys together, the better. It’s a bit of a shame - the Lee Butcher situation - because obviously we would’ve liked to have kept him.

“Tottenham have actually said they want to keep him for a little bit. So trust me, I’ve been on to Perry Suckling, said look we were highly interested in keeping him on. Him and Scott (Chalmers-Stevens) could have a right old tear up for the shirt and see what happens. But no, it wasn’t to be. I’ve put our name in the hat and I’m pretty sure if he ever becomes available again, we’ll be one of the first ones to get a phone call.

“My job and Sumdger’s (Paul Smith's) job is that we have to try and tie this all in now. Defend, get the ball down and play the way we want to play. We want to play football and stick our chances away and I think if we do that as I said, I think we’ll give anyone – well we’ve proved we’ll give anyone - a very good game in this league. And we’ve proved I think, to a few people and to ourselves more importantly, that we are little bit better than people give us credit for.”

On the injury front, Roberto Corbishley is, “getting there. He possibly could have been a sub (against Hendon) but just didn’t want to risk it. He trained Thursday night; some twisting, turning and ball work so that’s coming on. Pat’s (Mullin) doing a little bit of light running and light kicking.

“I would expect (with Roberto) another seven to 10 days, back (for) first team action, maybe even sooner. I think Pat will be a little bit longer.”

Ashby also announced that Tom Hickman has gone out on loan to former club, Faversham Town to, “get some games under his belt,” in the Bulmers Cider Kent League.

Article courtesy of www.margate-fc.com