Knaresborough Town were 'worthy winners' of FA Cup extra-preliminary-round clash with 'physical' Whickham FC

The Manse Lane outfit triumphed 2-1 on home soil to progress to the competition’s preliminary-round stage thanks to goals from Will Lenehan and Jonny White.

But, they did not have things all their own way over the course of the 90 minutes, and Hunter praised the Boro players for “standing up” to their Northern League opponents’ physical approach before finding a way to play their own game.

“The first 10 minutes, Whickham were very direct. You could see that they had a game-plan in terms of getting into our half,” said Knaresborough’s first-team coach.

"They are a physical team, and they did that really well to be honest. So, we had to ride out a storm, which we did, and stand up to them.

"After that, once we started playing the game in their half and got the ball down, we managed to find some gaps, and I thought we played some good stuff at times, particularly in the second half.

"Any team that you play from the Northern League are going to cause you problems, but I thought we did enough to win the game.

“Obviously, it got a little bit nervy towards the end when we conceded that goal from a corner, but credit to the lads, they worked really hard and I thought we were worthy winners.”

Whickham began the stronger of the teams and a header from Lewis Martin crashed against the cross-bar from a sixth-minute free-kick.

Joe Bates then brought a save from Knaresborough goalkeeper Danny King as the visitors kept up the pressure.

The hosts eventually settled, but it was the Tynesiders who continued to threaten and King was called into action again after Martin ran through on goal.

However, with 42 minutes on the clock, Knaresborough took the lead when centre-half Lenehan turned home Jack Lazenby’s corner from the left.

Barnes then shot wide and Jack Degruchy fired over as the home side pushed for a second, while at the other end, King had to tip Lenehan’s defensive header over the bar.

Alex Ingham was the first to threaten after the interval before Boro made it 2-0 in the 56th minute.

Full-back White, on his Knaresborough debut, took Degruchy’s pass in his stride, advanced through on goal and placed the ball under Ollie Walker as the Whickham goalkeeper tried to narrow the angle.

Aaron White and Degruchy both threatened to add to the home advantage before the visitors netted a consolation in stoppage time through Josh Houghton’s header from a corner.