In front of a healthy-crowd of 122 Handsworth Parramore battled out a 3-1 victory over Penistone Church yesterday afternoon.

Both sides went into the game looking for opening day success but it was the Ambers who took the win. Jed Phillips netted twice just after the break to give Handsworth a grip on the game. Cameron Rigby added a third in injury time before veteran centre-back Brett Lovell grabbed a last minute consolation for Church.

Ambers boss James Colliver was delighted to get off to a winning start, “Delighted to get off to a positive start I’m sure a lot of people looked at today’s fixture and thought it could go either way.

“I’ve listened to five interviews from the football league and below and they’re all talking about their first half display being poor and we were exactly the same.

“We had a few words at half time, discussed where we needed to improve and I felt in the second half we dominated especially up until we made our changes and lost our way a bit. We played some really good stuff to create goals and chances for ourselves.

“I felt we were deserved winners today, we hit the woodwork twice in the first half and limited Penistone to only a few chances. We now have two training sessions ahead and a FA Cup tie next Saturday.

“I was delighted three lads who played with niggles today came through ok as we have a small squad to chose from.”

Whilst from the opposing dugout, Ian Richards is looking to move on quickly from the defeat, ”