A bizarre night at Hurst Cross saw Morpeth Town trail 4-0 after 50 minutes before narrowly missing out on a share of the spoils on a topsy-turvy night in the Pitching In NPL Premier Division.
Visiting Morpeth headed into the game missing Chris Reid and the suspended Liam Noble, with others unavailable, leaving the Highwaymen with just three on the bench.
Despite this, the starting XI remained relatively settled with Vinnie Steels replacing Jack Foalle on the flank and Ryan Donaldson anchoring the midfield in place of Noble.
Town started relatively well on the road and played the ball around comfortably on a spongy pitch that had soaked up some heavy showers during the week.
They created the opening chance of the game on eight minutes, good build-up play finding Will Jenkins on the edge of the penalty area. However, his driven effort was pulled wide.
Ashton were building themselves into the game steadily, putting in a succession of dangerous deliveries from set-pieces.
It was from a ball in from the right that they’d hit the front on 18 minutes, Alex Byrne, the former Matlock Town midfielder, finding Jason Gilchrist to nod home unopposed from six yards out.
Morpeth, despite the set-back, were still managing matters competently enough without finding that clear-cut opportunity as demonstrated, on 34 minutes, by Andrew Johnson, who broke down the left but saw his dangerous ball in cut out by Dan Cowan.
Gilchrist was winning too many aerial duels in the 18-yard box and had another sight of goal on 39 minutes but his headed effort from a free-kick flew over the bar.
Both sides knew the value of the next goal but Johnson’s superb 41st minute ball across goal was just beyond Sam Hodgson but ahead of Vinnie Steels who couldn’t connect.
Town, though, would concede right on the stroke of half-time, again from a set-piece. This time Cowan was the man to benefit, rising highest to send the ball across goal and into the net.
Shell-socked by the interval, it went from bad to worse for Morpeth at the start of the second half as they conceded twice in five minutes.
Both coming from Gilchrist, he chased a ball down the channel before firing across Dan Lowson and into the far corner on 47 minutes.
He then completed his hat-trick on 50 minutes with a carbon copy effort on the opposite side to put the Robins 4-0 ahead with 40 minutes to go.
Staring down the barrel of a heavy defeat, Morpeth suddenly became a team revived with Danny Barlow’s 64th minute header being denied by Ashton’s keeper.
Steels then got the first Morpeth goal of the night, and the first of his career in amber and black, by burying a back post effort into the corner on 66 minutes.
A mere consolation by that point, the tide was starting to turn and the deficit was reduced further on 70 minutes with Johnson’s fifth goal of the season. The winger received Steels’ cut-back from the right before dispatching a shot into the bottom corner to make it 4-2.
Hodgson was played clean through but bundled his shot straight at the keeper before setting up a grandstand finale with 13 minutes to go when somehow finding the bottom corner through a sea of increasingly frazzled Ashton defenders.
With time on their side, Jenkins shot straight at the keeper. But that was as good as it would get, despite seven added minutes of stoppage time that saw Ashton looking more likely to score.
Gilchrist, probably the most guilty of a glaring miss, couldn’t find the net when clean through, instead hitting the post as the game ended 4-3 to the hosts.
Town are next in action when they welcome FC United of Manchester to Craik Park on Saturday in the FA Trophy.
