Quote: Winslade's Offload "Yes, you could certainly do that, there are several options for Price. He could even drop Charnley and put Ashton on the wing.
My thoughts are that keeping Ashton in the team gives him much needed experience, provides attacking edge, and puts pressure on other squad members to up their game. If you take him out, then he doesn't get the reward for his hard work. What do the likes of Thewliss think about their chances of establishing themselves in the first team when they see Ashton benched after putting in two strong performances ? '"
If Ashton makes way for Widdop returning it's not like he's being sent back to square one. He's shown that he isn't overwhelmed by SL and has looked impressive in his first couple of games and will know that over a full season, the pressures on a squad mean he will be called on again and he's going to be next in line.
The coach has to make a judgement on who is best placed to win the next week not give places out as a reward for playing well the previous week.
If over the season, Ashton establishes himself as a first teamer and we get to Wembley and the week before he's struggling with a niggling injury so Price leaves him out, and one of the other young lads comes in and has a belter of a game, we wouldn't expect Ashton to be left out for Wembley to reward that kid for the last week.
Players like Widdop, Ratchford, Lineham and Charnley have all proved themselves over a long period of time so I think if a young player starts kicking up a fuss about why was one of them not left out to keep Ashton in the team they've got a bit of an attitude problem. It would be different if those guys were either a) playing consistently bad and worthy of being dropped in their own right, or b) in probably the last season of their career, and so it being time to look to move to the future, but that isn't the case even though Charnley hasn't been himself for a while.
One big benefit we have got from Ashton's emergence is it has taken the pressure off the Widdop injury situation. We're doing OK without him so we can take time and let him get back to 100% before risking him, or let him get match fitness back by using him as a bench player introducing him for limited minutes with Ashton as a starter.
