North Ferriby VS Northwich Victoria

North Ferriby 3 Northwich Victoria 2

North Ferriby pulled off a tremendous victory to progress to the First Round Proper of this seasons Buildbase FA Vase. A 78th minute penalty from Danny East saw the Villagers to a 3-2 victory over Northwich Victoria at the Dransfield Stadium on Saturday.

Victoria arrived at the Dransfield with a big reputation and were one of the favourites, playing an equivalent league higher in the North West, to go on and win the competition. Ferriby led 1-0 at the break but fell behind with two early second half goals before the home side hit back. 

The early impetus came from the home side as they took the game to their opponents who took time to settle into the game. However the character of the Villagers plus two crucial substitutions shone through and took them through to the next round.

“It’s a great win, not how we want to win and the goals we gave were a little bit slack, not to the standards we expect,” said Ferriby Assistant Manager Paul Robson. 

“It’s a huge win for the lads and against such a club as Northwich Victoria who are a very strong team at their level. We have just said to the lads in there it shows the character we have at the moment but more importantly it is about the squad we have as we really took the game to them. 

“The subs who came on today, Scott Phillps and Danny Buttle, the difference they made and the impact they created for the game was phenomenal. It was a flat game and we could have easily gone into our shells but we didn’t. 

“It could have been a case of the lads being individuals and started pointing fingers at other people for the goals we shipped. To come back into the game especially the way we did and the impact of the subs who came on was tremendous. 

“They (Northwich) are a big club and we knew they were one of the favourites for this competition and we also knew what they were going to bring to us, plenty of pace out wide, a good strong boy up top. The odds were against us but we have a strong squad and back ourselves against anyone especially at home.”

The early chances went the way of Ferriby as Laurence McKay, Louis Kirk, Danny East and Jamie Forrester all went wide of the target. Vic eased their way into the game with Ryan Winder and Chad Whyte combining before Winder sent a curling shot wide of the left hand post.

The opening goal of the game came five minutes from half-time when a great cross field ball from Forrester found East. He threaded it through to Lois Kirk who weaved his way through into the box before a low shot beat Vic goalkeeper Michael Hale at his far post for the only goal of the half.

It was a poor start to the second half as the Villagers shipped two poor goals to trail 2-1 the first seeing Darryhi Mason toe poke past Lewis Exall as the defence stood still. The keeper could do little about the second one when they stood off Matthew Birchall whose low shot fired his side into the lead. 

Midway through the second half Ferriby made their double change with great effect as ten minutes later they were level. A superb Ben Leyland long ball firstly saw a point blank header from Phillips well saved but from the resultant corner the ball fell at the striker’s feet and he fired home.

With 78 minutes gone came the ultimate winner when Levi Tarbotton went on a rampaging run through the Vic side and into the area. If the defender had scored it would have been an amazing goal but he was upended leaving Danny East to send the keeper the wrong way with the penalty for 3-2.

It could have been even better in the final minute when East went through one on one with Vic defender Ashley Dunn and he was clearly fouled. The referee decided it was play on and decided Ferriby had done enough to make it through.

 

Ferriby: Lewis Exall, Ben Leyland, Laurence McKay, Levi Tarbotton, Niall Tilsley, Iwan Heeley, Danny Emerton, Louis Kirk, Tom Corner, Danny East, Jamie Forrester Subs: Joel Shortland, Jordan Douglas, Scott Phillips (Corner 65), Danny Buttle (Forrester 65), Gary Bradshaw 

Goals: Kirk (40), Phillips (75), East (78 pen)

 

Victoria: Michael Hale, Matthew Cook, Joseph Camozzi, Ashley Dunn, Kieran Kenny, Brandon Barski, Ryan Winder, Matthew Clarke, Chad Whyte, Matthew Bichall, Darryhi Mason Subs: Thomas Carr (Birchall 73), Saul Henderson, Callum Jones, Louis Potts, Thomas Grindrod, Saul Brew-Butler (Whyte 85)

Goals: Mason (53), Birchall (59)

Referee: Michael Robinson

Man of the match: Danny Emerton

Attendance: 300