Manager Danny Johnson gave an honest evaluation to his teams 5-0 defeat at the hands of Matlock Town yesterday. The manager told of his disappointment at the number of individual errors his players are continuing to make that are costing his team precious points on a regular basis.

Danny explains ‘I don’t believe that was our worst performance of the season, we were much worse at Chorley, Boston and North Ferriby. Until they scored there first goal I was more than happy with how the game was shaping up. I am feeling for Terry Smith at the minute as he is a top young goal keeper going through a real difficult spell. Terry will tell you himself that he should have collected the cross that resulted in their first goal and he should have done better for their second. The standards Terry has set so far since he joined the club have been nothing short of exceptional and I think he will be disappointed at not keeping out their fourth, although it was a wonderful strike and also at his decision making for their fifth. That sounds like I am putting the blame on Terry for the defeat, far from it but he will be bitterly disappointed’.

‘As manager of Ashton United I set my team up to play nice, attractive football and I thought yesterday we did just that. We struggled desperately in the final third and I don’t think we would have scored if we had played until next Saturday. But we can’t concede five goals and expect to get anything out of games. Players at the top of their game, no matter what level make the best decisions possible in the different situations they find themselves in. At this moment in time we have five or six players making really poor decisions on a regular basis and those individual errors are costing us. I can accept defeat when the opposition has outplayed us but we weren’t outplayed yesterday, Matlock didn’t pin us in our own half and have us by the throat at any stage in the game. They took their chances, which is what it is all about but we certainly made life easy for them with our poor decision making and inability to defend. Take nothing away from Matlock, they have some outstanding players and looked a real solid outfit who I think will gradually move up the table. They are in a bit of a false position at the minute and in Mark Atkins they certainly have someone who can take them to the higher reaches of this division’.

‘If you had given me third place after 19 games at the start of the season I would have said you were having a laugh so I will take our present standing. However, I won’t take getting beat by 3, 4 or 5 goals, having said that it is a different kettle of fish when you are at the top of the league. Since I have been manager at Ashton United we have done exceptionally well against all the top teams in the league. Why? I believe the reason to be mentality. It takes a certain quality and calibre of individual and team to win leagues and cups. When you are top of the pile your opponents get themselves up for the game, as we have done over the past couple of years. That’s what has happened to us, teams get motivated and managers challenge their teams to beat the top team. We have shown that we are not capable of dealing with that situation and if I am honest it is a relief. Yes, of course it is nice to be top of the league but you have that added pressure as both player and management team to stay there whilst the other teams are raising their performance. We have held top spot for a while now so let’s see how the others get on’.

‘The same thing happened to Hednesford Town last season, they were top for months and didn’t even manage to make the play offs. I will be quite happy for us to be in the top eight with an opportunity to pounce in the final 5 or so games. This group of players has bounced back on a number of occasions and I expect them to do just that when we play Hucknall Town at our place next Saturday. It will be another challenge that we need to overcome but I have the belief in the players we have at the club and I am sure they will be chomping at the bit to put a few things right’.