Ashton United’s club director Andrew Evans has reviewed the season on and off the field so far and believes finally people are starting to sit up and take notice of the club from Tameside.

Due to many factors Evans has said the club has a new impetus and drive to succeed. Thanks to the committed and loyal volunteers at Hurst Cross, the pitch is now looking in top shape and now ready for the side to continue playing their fine free flowing football going into the business end of the season; “The pitch has taken a couple of heavy battering’s the last few weeks notably the FC United game followed by the Stourbridge game. There has been no real let up with regards to rain, and now snow, to allow Andy Finnigan to get the machines on the pitch to roll or brush the surface as it’s just been too soft.

"The rest the pitch has had this week will have given it chance to recover ahead of the visit of Workington and our small army of volunteers will do their best to have it in the best condition possible for our next two home games. Our home win against Stourbridge was in my view fantastic! We worked our nuts off to get the pitch fit for that game and the players together with Phillo & Ackers did their job on the pitch, put in the performance, and got the 3 points, job done! Respect to Phillo & Steve, as they both bought me a beer after the game!”

“I would like to think this season the ground and playing surface has improved on last season. Small, but noticeable improvements are being made week by week and I want this to continue each season. There are steps being made behind the scenes with regards to projects/working partnerships and sponsorships which will lead to bigger improvements to the ground, fingers crossed.”

This season the club has consistently been in the top 30 of the Pitchero website rankings, for a club that hosts an average of 140 supporters every match this is incredible and thanks once again to the dedicated volunteers at the club.

Evans believes it is no coincidence that the team are doing so well due to increased media coverage as he went on to say; “Behind the scenes this Club is beginning to go somewhere now! This is because everyone involved is pulling together and working hard, from the commercial side of things to the website and social media, and the involvement of the likes of James Burch around the Club. It’s just given Ashton United a new impetus. This has coincided with the improvement of the team last season and now this season, Ashton United is on an upward spiral in my view.”

Ashton United are currently ‘there-or-thereabouts’ with just over twenty games to go of this season’s campaign. With eight or nine clubs still believing promotion and a play-off place is possible, there is no doubting the upcoming months will be a slog, but if the Robins overcome this they may well just find themselves in a league above come August; “The table doesn’t lie! We are in the mix and in a good position with games in hand on several teams above us. We have key players back, two clean sheets, strikers scoring, not many bookings & no red cards, put all that together, we’re on the march!”

He finished by saying; “I want promotion just as much as Phillo and Ackers, I would love to see everyone’s hard work be given the best reward and promotion would be that. You never know what’s around the corner and having a successful team on the pitch can have its rewards off the pitch. Phillo and Ackers have been a breath of fresh air to this club, they have raised everyone expectations of what can be achieved. We have been a mid-table team for too long! Making last season’s play-off final I hope is only the start of things to come. C’mon Ashton!”