Winterton Rangers VS North Ferriby

Urban Newton
The bragging rights in the 'Battle of the Humber' were claimed by North Ferriby FC after a 2-0 win away to Winterton Rangers.
Debutant Morgan Brough and Jamie Forrester scored the goals at the Hammond Homes Stadium, as Ferriby made it two NCEL Division One wins on the bounce.
It was dark and drizzly in North Lincolnshire when everyone arrived for the first-half, though the clouds abruptly gave way as soon as the teams entered from the changing rooms.
The start was frantic and bitty in the sunshine. Both benches showed grievances to the officials from the off, with many of referee Ryan Bould's decisions being deemed as "soft".
Both sides also showed good intent early on, and it didn’t take the Villagers long to make the breakthrough with just ten minutes gone.
Out of nothing, Jamie Forrester turned on the ball centrally, twenty-yards out from the hosts' goal. He then hammered a left-footed effort across the goalkeeper that hit the top-right corner of the net at some pace.

The travelling Ferriby faithful, who may have outnumbered the home fans, burst into joyous chants of "green army". 
Five minutes later, Forrester almost had another.
From a very similar position, he hit a freekick over the Winterton wall. It dipped down, beat the keeper but didn’t beat the crossbar, ricocheting back of the top of the woodwork.
Chris Bolder's men dominated possession, and that controlling of the ball nearly led to debutant Morgan Brough, on loan from Alfreton Town, scoring his first.
On twenty minutes, he was slid through the inside-left channel. He then toe-poked the ball across the goalkeeper just inside the area, but the keeper got down well to his right to save.
The same move put Brough through again but his dink over the goalkeeper hit the outside of his left-hand post.
Winterton's few chances came from counter-attacks. The best of which was a three-on-two situation that was rolled across the Ferriby six-yard box from the right but not turned in.
As ever this season, the Villagers came out from the interval absolutely flying. 

It was third-time lucky for Morgan Brough. He bagged a debut goal, and Ferriby's second, two minutes after the restart.
An aimless ball forward was misjudged by one of the Winterton centre-halves. That left Brough with just the keeper to beat from around the penalty spot and he duly slotted home.
There was little of note throughout much of the second-half. Ferriby seemed content with their two-goal lead, also restricting the hosts to no more than speculative pop-shots.
Though Rangers did have the ball in the back of the net on seventy-two minutes.
Goalkeeper Lewis Exall was under a corner kick that ended up being headed in at back-post. The referee deemed it a foul on Exall, who ended up on the deck, though the home supporters claimed it was some sort of gamesmanship from the Ferriby man.

On the whole, it was an assured, professional performance from the Villagers in a game that was played in a fairly feisty manner. Winterton could have been a tricky test for Bolder's men but the win was thoroughly deserved.
North Ferriby FC squad: Lewis Exall; Jason Mycoe, Jack Mail, James Piercy (c), Laurence McKay; Eddie Birch (off 80'), Jamie Forrester, Russell Fry; Joel Shortland, Morgan Brough (off 73'), Danny Emerton

Subs: Jordan Douglas, Louis Kirk (on 80'), Danny Norton, Tom Oliver, Sam Robinson (on 73')