Robins mauled by The Tigers

Play off contenders Worksop got the better of their visitors despite being reduced to ten men in the first half at the Windsor Food Service Stadium.

Ashton were without leading scorer Darius Osei with Jason Gilchrist deputising and within three minutes a fired up Vaughan Redford received a yellow card for protesting a foul which was to have repercussions later for the hosts.

Ten minutes in Alex Byrne headed Louis White's near post cross past the post and 5 minutes later he missed the far post from Josh Doherty's delivery. Two minutes on Luke Burke picked up Byrne's return pass and saw his left foot effort come back off the inside of the post with Taylor stretching and after Redford's pass had sent Mason O'Malley too wide his cross was eventually headed at Eastham by Liam Hughes - the footnote to which was Vaughan preventing Eastham's clearance and receiving a second booking.

Hamza Bencherif then cleared Sean Newton's cross for a corner which ended with Burke's shot being cleared off the line by Taylor and only a last ditch challenge from O'Malley denied Burke in the area from Hardy's pass. The home side could have had the last word in the six added minutes as Joe Leesley forced a low save out of Eastham after Hughes had won the ball. Within five minutes of the restart the Tigers moved ahead as a right wing throw in saw Aleks Starcenko turn sharply before providing a low finish into the far corner.

Byrne then saw his cross bring a tip over from Gilchrist's header and Leesley's attempt from halfway went well wide after he dispossessed Hardy. With 20 minutes left Byrne's snapshot hit the angle of post and bar and Burke save Ashton as Starcenko fired a cross having evaded Newton. With 10 minutes left Hardy's shot was cleared off the line after a combination of the subs Denton and Chimalilo had headed a deep cross back and Burke was then penalised for fouling Hughes as he tried to collect Barrow's cross with the former picking himself up to convert from the spot.

Despite 8 minutes being added on Ashton could come no nearer than Newton's backpost header being saved from a corner and White forcing a rebound wide after a good save from Byrne's shot.