If hockey were football then the return of Mike Williamson as guest coach would have been akin to the return of the messiah at Tyneside. The only other difference being that whereas Keegan is still looking for his first win, Williamson has already made his mark in helping Ashford secure a win against a decent mid table side away from home.
The win closes the 4-point gap to just 2 points from 9th place, theoretically considered safe. Ashford started well and within 4 minutes were one up with J Webber assisting McFarlane to create an opening that was put away.
Ashford had much of the play in the first 20 minutes holding the ball well, creating good openings and so it was against the run of play that Hawks equalized through a defensive error by Olly Smith. His touch to clear was deflected to an Oxford Hawks attacker who scored from close range. The previous week this would have seen a collapse in morale and Oxford might have leveraged the equalizer to inflict more misery on Ashford. Under Williamson the team just carried on playing good hockey. The body language, work rate and the shape showed no evidence of changing.
In the 27th minute Mcfarlane hit the post with a close range effort. The half time team talk was positive and attentive as the best hockey coach in the UK calmly reiterated the points that would, without question, bring victory. It was made so as Ashford won a penalty corner after 48 minutes and Jimmy Webbers drag flick deflected in off a defenders stick. Amazing that the bad luck of other games this season was exorcised by a deflection and a deserved lead.
This was followed by a clearance off the line by the Oxford defender a few minutes later. Granger then beat two players in an aggressive run into the D passing the ball to Andrew Webber on the flick spot to score a great team goal making it 3-1 to Ashford. Of course no game would be complete without at least one yellow card and the umpires had their fill from the action when they carded the Webber brothers in short succession.
The outcome was never in doubt after that, as Oxford Hawks looked second best despite winning 2 penalty corners near the end.
How strange that the same players who had been misfiring for the majority of the season looked like a top 3 side today not only in ability but also in belief.
With 3 more games to go and a tough one next week against Chichester, Ashford still have it in them to escape relegation and the next few weeks are going to be just as exciting and stressful as the run-in last season when promotion was the talking point.
