Image by James Richardson

In front of a crowd of 1,139 spectators, Hall Road Rangers earned the local bragging rights in a hard fought 1-2 win at North Ferriby FC.

Ferriby had the early attacking threat as they created a few chances on Hall Road’s goal. These included efforts from Josh Whiteley and Jamie Forrester which were comfortably saved by Rangers keeper Tom Macauley. Whiteley later put a shot wide.

Hall Road broke the deadlock in the 35th minute when Reece Moody slotted home to bag his 8th league goal of the season. This finished off an excellent attacking move which involved some brilliant interplay between Tom Bennett, Chris Spinks and Callum Stone.

However, this lead lasted just five minutes as the hosts provided an immediate reaction. Ferriby equalised in the 40th minute as Jackson Jowett pounced on a rebound and got his name on the scoresheet after Josh Whiteley’s effort came back off the post.

This didn’t deter Hall Road though as they went up the other end of the pitch and were awarded a free kick just outside the Ferriby box as Tom Bennett was fouled. Chris Spinks stepped up and curled a wonderful free kick into the back of the net to get his 2nd league goal of the campaign just before the break.

Rangers had plenty of defending to do in the second half as Ferriby looked to get themselves back into the game. The hosts put a free kick wide in the 55th minute.

Ferriby’s desire to push more players forward left gaps in their defence which allowed Hall Road the opportunity to try and punish them on the counter attack.

Reece Moody had a couple of efforts saved by Ferriby keeper Lewis Exall. Meanwhile, Tom Macauley had to produce a good save to prevent the hosts from cancelling out Hall Road’s lead.

As the game drew to a close, Conner Harman saw his free kick saved by Lewis Exall.

Rangers joint boss Leon Sewell was delighted with his side’s performance.

“If I’m totally truthful, I thought we wanted it more than North Ferriby. To be fair to Chris and Paul, they actually said form goes out the window and it’s all about local bragging rights.

We’ve come here and the boys were absolutely spot on. For me, we outworked them and outfought them.

There were three good goals including two from us. We showed a bit of character in the first half as we took the lead, then conceded and scored again.

The stand out moments were a couple of saves. One from Tom Macauley in our goal to keep it at 1-2 and then Lewis Exall in the Ferriby goal which should have made it 1-3 to us.

Big three points. We said to the boys at the beginning of the day it’s about who wants it more and who’s prepared to work hard.

I thought both teams played some good football. Ultimately, we’ve come away with three massive points and a 1-2 victory” Sewell said.