SUNDERLAND MAKE HARD WORK OF VITAL VICTORY

ASHBROOKE OUTFIT COULD HAVE BEEN OUT OF SIGHT IF IT WASN’T FOR HANDLING ERRORS

Sunderland squeezed a narrow victory over Ashington, consolidating their fourth place in Durham and Northumberland Two.

The Wearsiders ground out a 12-10 win, in a game littered with uncharacteristic errors from the young side.

Ashington has always proved a tough destination for Sunderland, with both sides committing basic mistakes.

As a result, it took sometime for the visitors to score.

Craig Elstob crashed over for the opening score, Leon Ryan converting.

Ashington hit back with their own try, before Sunderland raced out of the blocks in the second half.

Despite starting the better, mistakes saw Sunderland struggle until teenager Dean Edmundson went over in the corner for an unconverted try.

Ashington, through poor tackling, scored again, but unconverted.

With minutes to go, Ashington were awarded a penalty and luckily their kicker saw his attempt drift agonisingly wide to hand Sunderland the victory.

Sunderland chairman Paul Geehan said after the victory: “We were always going to win, but we could have won by a lot more - but we caused our own mistakes through poor handling.

“We broke through their lines a number of times, but the final passes just didn’t go to hand.

“It’s a hard place to play, and it wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win.”

“We are looking forward to our next match which is at home to Sedgefield, and we aiming to work on the things in training which didn’t work on Saturday.”