A cracking end to end game at Hurst Cross from start to finish ended with a thrilling win for Ashton United, in a game that swung between spells of dominance for both teams throughout.
Ashton were on a winless run of 4 games before this fixture and the start to this match suggested they would be heading for a defeat. Buxton attacked immediately, and in the opening minute as a scrap for possession was developing on the edge of Ashton's penalty area the ball came out to Martin Pembleton - his low shot evading all the bodies in front of him and going straight into the bottom left corner of the net with the keeper only seeing it late.
The following ten minutes were relentless Buxton pressure and several more good chances, with Ashton rattled and left resorting to wildly hoofing the ball away and doing nothing but defend, and a whitewash was looking a distinct possibility.
After these ten minutes one of the Ashton forwards managed to get his chest to one of the random punts forward and pass it to a fellow player, thus the first moment they’d kept possession for more than a second!
Ashton then began to settle into the game and started to create half chances. Buxton were still having the better opportunities, but as the first half continued the dominance was gradually switching from Buxton to Ashton, and from around the half hour through to half time it was Ashton who were now controlling the possession and pegging Buxton back. Very good chances weren’t quite converted, and the half finished with Cahill being carried off injured after coming off worst from his own sliding challenge, Kosylo on in his place.
Buxton fans may have welcomed the half time whistle in the hope their team would get themselves together and begin the second half as they began the first. Instead the reverse of the first half happened – Ashton the ones bombing forward, and in the opening minute of the second half a powerful Liam Dawson shot from an acute angle wide left of the penalty area somehow went between the goalie and the left post and into the net to make it 1-1.
They had a couple more good chances before around the 50th minute Buxton thought they’d retaken the lead – a shot was parried by Ashton’s keeper straight to a Buxton striker who nodded into the empty net, but the linesman raised his flag – goal disallowed. The Buxton fans were furious as the last touch before it was headed in was off Ashton’s keeper, but I believe one of these recent rule changes means the linesmen go off whether the player is offside when the initial shot happens and ignore if the goalkeeper gets a touch. I don’t really know why someone at the FA or wherever thought this would be a good idea but it doesn’t half infuriate the fans!
Anyway this incident merely seemed to spur on Buxton who spent the following 15 minutes relentlessly attacking. They couldn’t quite convert any of an array of good chances during this spell, but ironically just after Ashton managed to get the ball and create two good opportunities of their own, Buxton then got their goal on the 69th minute, with Kieran Lugsden on the edge of the penalty area slotting it low into the bottom left corner to make it 2-1.
Ashton reacted quickly to this and piled forward, winning a free kick right on the left edge of the penalty area, with some fans howling for a penalty. Anyway as a couple of Buxton players had a moan about this, the free kick was taken quickly - scooped high into the penalty area - and from the edge of the 6 yard box Aaron Burns headed it into the top right hand corner for a 73rd minute equaliser, 2-2.
End to end attacking ensued and there was no predicting how this would go. Straight from a Buxton attack, Ashton broke forward themselves and in the 81st minute Peter Wright got the ball on the edge of the penalty area. Wallop would be word for what happened here - he smashed it emphatically into the top right hand corner and for the first time on the night it was Ashton United in the lead at 3-2.
With Buxton pushing for an equaliser, on the 85th minute the substitute who came on at the end of the first half - Matthew Kosylo, making his Ashton debut - got the ball in a central position outside the penalty area, and a looping shot dipped into the top centre of the goal, finishing off an amazing spell of 4 goals in 16 minutes, and a thrilling turnaround to give Ashton United a valuable 3 points.
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