TWO PENALTIES from Daniel Nti saw Worcester City claim their first victory of the Vanarama Conference North season against early league leaders North Ferriby United on Saturday (August 30).
United came into the game unbeaten but two late spot-kicks from Nti condemned them to their first defeat of the campaign.
Liam King’s early strike had put the visitors on course for another victory but City, who lost key midfielder Ebby Nelson-Addy to Brackley Town ahead of the game, fought back to secure all three points.
Within four minutes of the kick-off it looked like Carl Heeley’s men were in for a long afternoon when Louis Bruce’s low cross found Nathan Jarman who had his effort blocked but the ball fell to King to strike home.
Jarman was the width of a post away from doubling the lead less than 60 seconds later after Nathan Vaughan’s poor clearance fell to the striker, but fortunately for the hosts his effort rebounded off the woodwork.
A nervous City side settled mid way through the first period and Nick Wright thought he had levelled the game up when he fired home but a delayed linesman’s flag cut short the striker’s celebrations.
Nti then raced on to a Connor Gater through ball on the half hour mark only to find his powerful effort kept out by the body of Adam Nicklin before Gater himself then headed over a Danny Jackman free-kick.
The game-changing moment came after 63 minutes when Heeley introduced pacey winger Tristan Dunkley for Wright and within ten minutes the wide-man had earnt his side their first penalty when he darted into the box and was brought down by Nathan Peat.
Nti stepped up and duly dispatched his effort, despite Nicklin getting a hand to it.
The Blue and Whites could sense their opportunity to grab their first three points of the season and Graham Hutchison was inches away from connecting with a Symons cross, before the striker was played in by Dunkley and hauled down in the box by Matt Wilson with four minutes to go.
Last season’s top scorer once again held his nerve to squirm the ball past Nicklin and secure a first victory for his side.
Manager Heeley said: “I think for the first 20 minutes or so we were second best and were probably fortunate to just be one goal down.
“Then we’ve missed three one-on-ones ourselves and had a perfectly good goal disallowed from Nick Wright and then second half it was one way traffic and I think there was only going to be one winner based on the second half performance.
“It could have been a much higher scoring game if the teams took their chances, but I still think we’d of come out on top because we created that much.”
Worcester will look to secure back-to-back league wins when they make the long trip to Barrow on Saturday (September 6).