Digging Deep: North Ferriby growth from the Allotment End

Words: Darren Norton

Images: Matthew Kempson

15th of March, 2019.

Probably not a date that will jump out at most of you.

For me, it’s a day I’ll never forget.

I’m in a lay-by on the outskirts of Corby, on my dinner break and pick up my phone to go straight on Twitter

Several notifications have been sent from both friends and relative strangers.

©Matthew Kempson/ Terrace Edition. North Ferriby FC. England.

It’s the news I’d been dreading all day, my club North Ferriby United have been wound-up in the High Court over unpaid debts.

I can’t begin to explain the feeling as I read a shoddily prepared statement from the club's official account.

Disbelief, shock, anger. We’d been expecting some sort of bad news, but not this! It can’t be right, surely?

Several text exchanges and phone calls later and my worst fears are confirmed.

That’s it. We’re not even seeing out the season, our league record is to be expunged, like the previous eight months had been for nothing.

North Ferriby United FC is no more.

Fast forward a little over four years later and phoenix club North Ferriby FC have just secured back-to-back promotions, first from the Northern Counties East League Division 1 (Step 6) after a 3-2 Play-Off victory over Harrogate Railway, and twelve months later, winning the NCEL Premier Division (Step 5) with two games to go.

It’s a long way back to previous highs in our former guise - FA Trophy champions in 2015 and a year later wining the National League North Play-Off Final to secure the club’s only ever season in the top flight of non-league football.

Yet, the club is now back on a sound financial footing and looking to progress back to a decent, sustainable level in the pyramid.

Nothing will ever erase the horrible feeling of that March day in 2019 but then nothing will beat the feeling of winning at Wembley, the Play-Off win over Fylde, playing the likes of Wrexham, York City and Lincoln City in our inaugural National League season.

The lows of back-to-back relegations and financial struggles and liquidation.

The reformation of the club just five months after the original one disappeared.

The feeling of a 1-0 win at Thackley on a cold Saturday in March, to secure the latest title.

It’s the ups and downs that only football can bring, heartache, despair, hope and celebration.

The club with the allotment end can hopefully grow in a sustainable way.

We have a saying at North Ferriby, made famous by our Chairman as he addressed the players after the first promotion in 2022, secured after two Covid-hit seasons.

“There’s an easy way, there’s a hard way, and there’s the Ferriby way “.

Long may that continue.