Last-gasp victory
John Nolan
Davie Ross grabbed a last minute winner to end Ashfield’s unbeaten start on a day of real drama at Victoria Park.
Skipper Ross crashed home a header to dump the league leaders and land Newmains their second win of the season.
That came just moments after United thought their chance to take all three points had gone when Paul Donaghy’s spotkick was saved.
Earlier Michael Barton had put Newmains in front before Ashfield’s equaliser sparked the second half fight for victory.
But amid the joy there was heartbreak for Martin Hannaway who suffered a serious knee injury which saw play delayed for over half an hour.
This had looked a daunting task on paper with under-strength United sides shipping 16 goals in their previous two games.
North Glasgow outfit Ashfield had won six and drawn one of their seven games.
But it turned into a class juniors afternoon consisting of pretty much everything.
There was a slippery surface, goalkeeping errors, fiery tackles, a stunning free-kick, a penalty saved, a five-minute melee which resulted in two yellow cards and Ross’ last gasp header.
United took just six minutes to stun Ashfield when a loose touch by the visiting keeper allowed Barton to slide in and send the ball inside the right post.
At the other end the Newmains defence was looking more solid and snuffed out any danger.
But there was little that could have been done to prevent Ashfield equalising on the half hour mark as Keigan Parker curled his free-kick into the top right corner with Newmains’ number one Gordon Bruce rooted to the spot.
Play was halted after Hannaway’s injury, but United put his loss to one side as things opened up more after the break.
Ashfield sent a header narrowly over from a corner then a terrible backpass sent Newmains striker Donaghy oneon-one with the keeper.
He skipped past the goalie but an Ashfield defender managed to clear it off the line.
United were given a chance to win with five minutes left when they were awarded a penalty after dangerous Donaghy was wiped out by the goalie.
After dusting himself down Donaghy stepped up only to see his shot well saved.
But instead of demoralising the players the miss seemed to galvanise Newmains as they continued to push for a winner.
Things got heated after a cynical challenge on Barton but United didn’t let the confrontations distract them.
With injury time on the horizon they won a corner which was whipped into the near post where Ross bulleted home a header into the top corner to spark wild celebrations.