Rob Elliot won't criticise heroic Gateshead after home defeat against Woking

Gateshead manager Rob Elliot refused to criticise his players for their performance in Saturday’s 3-0 home defeat against Jermain Defoe’s Woking and insisted they had earned a reprieve after their miracle escape from relegation.

The Heed had preserved their National League status just seven days earlier after Harry Chapman grabbed the only goal of a narrow in at Aldershot Town and that ensured Elliot’s side had rounded off their own ‘Great Escape’ after they were 11 points from safety as recently as mid-February.

The former Newcastle United goalkeeper handed his players three days off following their return from Aldershot as a reward for their efforts over their last two months. They returned to the International Stadium for training on Thursday but were unable to round off their home fixtures for the season in style as goals from Harry Beautyman, Olly Sanderson and Matt Ward helped former Sunderland star Defoe preserve his unbeaten start to life as Woking manager with a 3-0 win on the south bank of the Tyne.

Despite his understandable disappointment over the performance and result, Heed boss Elliot prioritised praising his players for their exploits over the last three months as they defied the odds to ensure his side will compete in the top tier of non-league football once again next season.

Speaking after the defeat, he said: “When you reflect, what these lads have done, the mental stimulus and what they’ve had to go through, to get those results in this run, if any group deserved to be applauded off the pitch and the understanding they are human beings at the end of the day, it’s this one. It wasn’t a team that gave up and didn’t give everything and that’s acceptable. You can be generic and say we have to win every game and absolutely we will but in this situation, there has to be realism and understanding that what this club has had to go through and what we have got to, the amount of credit these players deserve I probably couldn’t sum up. If there is a team that deserves to be let off for a 3-0 defeat at home, it’s this one.”

Awards

Meanwhile, former Middlesbrough midfielder Fenton John was the big winner at Gateshead’s end-of-season awards night as he collected the Young Player of the Season and Player of the Season awards. January signing Keaton Ward landed the Goal of the Season for his stunning late strike against Braintree Town and Harry Chapman earned Players’ Player of the Season and was also honoured for ending the season as the Heed’s top goalscorer.

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