Humber Premier League champions Beverley Town returned to league action against North Cave who were sitting in sixth place. Beverley were hardly ever troubled in a game they won with two goals.
Town welcomed back Adam Nicholson, Matthew Start and James Whittingham into the squad. There was also a warm welcome back to Tyler Collishaw for his first appearance of the season.
Beverley started very brightly on a sticky pitch which was not conducive for passing football.
They could have took the lead in the first five minutes when good work from Whittingham and Kingsley down the left, led to Danny Norton hitting the bar with a crisp header.
A few minutes later centre back Dane Mortimer hit the bar from a Mike O’Connell corner and as the ball dropped the same player blazed the rebound over the bar.
It seemed only a matter of time before Town would take the lead, and after another wicked corner from O’Connell, Kingsley stabbed home the rebound for his eighth league goal of the season.
It now seemed that the floodgates would open but to their credit, Cave started to find the way back into the game, and with a little more composure in the final third they could have possibly found their way back into the game.
Town were not working hard enough in and out of possession with Kingsley becoming increasingly isolated. Cave had a chance to equalise but a shot on the angle was easily dealt with by Nicholson.
Beverley made a change at half-time with Rob Northen replacing Kingsley. The champion’s started to push their opponents back attacking down the slope and Northen had a great opportunity to increase the lead after good work by Jack Tranmer, but he stabbed his effort wide of the post.
The same player had an even better chance when a glorious diagonal ball from Whittingham found the striker in space, but he couldn’t sort his feet out quickly enough and put his effort well wide.
Town were becoming increasingly frustrated as they couldn’t find a way to put the game out of the away teams reach and it was Cave who had a glorious chance to equalise, when a mix up between Mike Dixon and Nicholson led to the ball being lobbed to the far post, where the on rushing striker with the goal at his mercy managed to head the ball wide.
This proved to be a costly miss, as substitute Andrew Stott, who arguably was a little unfortunate to be left on the bench, cut inside onto his left foot and hit a shot towards the goal this should have been easily dealt with by the North Cave goalkeeper, but he managed to let the ball slip through his hands. Beverley now saw the game out comfortably keeping their 10th clean sheet of the season.
Manager David Ricardo told HU17.net;
“The lack of concentration shown by us could have been costly. After starting the game so well we simply went off the boil. There was a vast improvement in the second half shown by the whole team.”
“North Cave did not really cause us any problems, they played with one man up front and kept the same shape even after going two goals down.”
“It was very pleasing for us to have Nicholson back, he had a good game and what little he had to do he done well.”
On Saturday, Town entertain Goole United who are having a good first season in the Humber Premier league, and Beverley know this will be another stiff test in their quest to retain their title.
