Beverley went into their top of the table clash with rivals Sculcoates Amateurs, knowing that a victory would mean them leapfrogging their opponents into 2nd place.
Town knew they needed a much-improved performance after struggling to earn a point the previous week.
Beverley made a number of changes with manager Dave Ricardo bringing himself into midfield alongside the returning Mike O’Connell. The forward line was shaken up also, with Rob Northern, and new signing Craig Palmer coming in to play alongside Luke Thompson.
Town started brightly keeping possession well, with Nathan White prominent in midfield. Although Beverley were having the majority of the play, they were struggling to break down a strong Sculcoates back four, the first opportunity came when Thompson used his strength well to fizz a shot across the goal, but there was no player coming into finish it off.
The away team took the lead on 18mins, when a ball was cleared from a corner straight to captain Jon Ricardo, who miscued a shot from 30 yards; fortunately, it ran straight to Northern, who took the ball in his stride to finish with this right foot into the bottom corner.
Town were now on the front foot, and Palmer was causing problems for the two Amateurs centre backs, creating space for Northern and Thompson to exploit.
With the game evenly balanced, the ball dropped to Michael Leng in the Beverley box, who hit an instinctive first-time shot; this produced an outstanding save by keeper Adam Nicholson one handed down to his right-hand side. Nicholson has been in superb form later, with his handling and distribution arguably being the best in the league.
Beverley with this in mind when two goals up, when Northern scored his third header of the season, peeling away from the keeper to head home his 6th goal in six games.
Town were now looking to half-time, when the home side to their credit hit back with an excellent goal, Ricky Field cut inside and ran at the heart of the Beverley defence, before slipping a well-disguised ball into striker Leng, who finished very well in off the post.
Sculcoates came flying out of the traps after the break, with substitute Ben Bassett having an impact straight away down the right-hand side.
After a breakdown, this side the equaliser nearly came when a ball in from the flank was headed against the post, with keeper Nicholson stranded.
This was key turning point in the game, because after the initial 15min after half-time, Town began to whether the storm, and started to counter attack well with Thompson and Northern always a threat.
As the game wore on the Beverley defence superbly led by Asa Pardoe and J.Ricardo, soaked up everything the home side threw at them. It was from a breakaway where substitute Richard Gibson broke through in the 83rd minute, used the last defender as a decoy and bent in a sublime 3rd goal for the away side.
This goal took the steam out of Sculcoates, and the game was comfortably seen out by Town giving them a superb victory, and also meaning that Beverley have now taken six points off one of their main rivals.
Beverley now move on to another tough game where they travel to North Cave the league leaders, who have been especially prolific when it comes to scoring goals. The challenge holds no fear for Town who are now unbeaten in 18 games going into this match.
Final Score Sculcoates Amateurs 1 Beverley Town 3 | Reported by Steve Mulligan
