Boston United's play-off dream turned into a nightmare after suffering a 3-0 second leg defeat to North Ferriby United on Sunday afternoon.

Ferriby overturned their 2-0 first leg deficit courtesy of goals from Liam King, Tom Denton and Danny Clarke.

All three goals were shrouded in controversy but there was no doubting that Ferriby were worthy second leg winners to book a promotion final at home to AFC Fylde.

King's 11th minute penalty was awarded following a 50-50 tussle between Denton and Carl Piergianni, while keeper Fabian Spiess appeared to be fouled in the lead-up to the corner from which Ferriby doubled their lead through Denton five minutes later.

The Pilgrims' woes were compounded when referee Andrew Miller failed to stop play following a head injury to Nat Brown and Clarke capitalised, nine minutes after half-time, to win the two-legged tie for Ferriby.

Ferriby were a different beast to the side which had been well-beaten on Wednesday evening and Clarke had already fired wide and Josh Wilde denied by Spiess before their opening goal.

Piergianni tangled with Denton and once the contentious penalty had been awarded, KING sent Spiess the wrong way from the spot.

Moments earlier, Dayle Southwell had been denied by a good Adam Nicklin save after crafting a shooting opportunity for himself by skipping inside Sam Topliss' challenge.

Ferriby doubled their lead on 16 minutes when DENTON rose highest to power home Adam Bolder's corner, despite appearing to foul Spiess in the build-up to the flag-kick.

Spiess was on hand to deny Denton a quickfire second by clawing the giant striker's header to safety a minute later.

The match gradually evened out, with the aggregate scores level, and Zak Mills had an angled drive beaten to safety by Nicklin before Grant Roberts' drive deflected wide off Danny Hone.

Hone turned home Bolder's cross eight minutes into the second half, but the offside flag was promptly raised. The Pilgrims' respite was short-lived though and with Brown stricken on the turf, CLARKE galloped clear to score what turned out to be the decisive goal.

Boston responded with Brown's acrobatic volley flying agonisingly wide following Kaine Felix's cross, while Mills' drive deflected a fraction wide. Nicklin later made routine stops to deny Scott Garner and substitute Mark Jones, but the Pilgrims eventually came up short.

North Ferriby (4-2-3-1): Adam Nicklin; Sam Topliss, Danny Hone, Ashley Palmer, Josh Wilde; Wayne Brooksby (Danny Emerton 87), Adam Bolder (Russell Fry 70); Danny Clarke, Liam King, Curtis Bateson; Tom Denton. Subs (not used): Ryan Kendall, Mark Gray, Ben Middleton.

Boston (4-3-3): Fabian Spiess; Zak Mills, Nat Brown, Carl Piergianni, Dylan McEvoy (Cameron Johnson 82); Scott Garner, Grant Roberts (Joe Burgess 60), Lewis Hilliard; Kaine Felix (Mark Jones 60), Dayle Southwell, Jay Rollins. Subs (not used): Liam Marrs, Malachi Lavelle-Moore.

Referee: Andrew Miller.

Attendance: 2,027.