Ward's headed double ended a spirited Skegness fightback after the Lilywhites had struck twice in the second period to cancel out the Daniels' brace in the opening period.

Despite missing a number of players for the trip to the seaside - including Rob Morgan, Jack Keeble, Cosmos Mathwasa, James Hicks, Cleveland Taylor and Ollie Luto - Stamford started brightly as the heavens opened with a torrential downpour just after kick-off.

Dec O'Hare saw an early close range effort blocked by Skegness goalkeeper Phil McGann while Liam Adams also threatened the home goal on a couple of occasions.

The Daniels broke the deadlock after 17 minutes when Olly Brown-Hill's low centre from the left picked out Tom Siddons who slotted home for the second successive match.

The lead was doubled seven minutes later when Brown-Hill's inswinging corner curled straight into the Skegness net as McGann failed to clear under pressure from a posse of players.

Adams came close to adding a third before half-time when he rattled an effort against the home crossbar.

Stamford were then prevented from increasing their lead after the break by a couple of superb reaction stops from McGann.

The former Deeping Rangers and Lincoln United custodian first foiled O'Hare as he looked likely to net for the third consecutive Stamford match before denying Brown-Hill with an equally impressive stop.

This seemed to give Skegness a lift and they halved the deficit after 68 minutes when Ben Davison finished off a well-worked move past Dan Haystead.

Haystead then produced a superb stop to deflect a goalbound effort wide, but the Stamford goalkeeper was powerless to prevent the Lilywhites getting back on level terms after 71 minutes through Andy Hutchison's back post header.

This signalled Skegness' best spell of the game, but Stamford soon wrestled control back by regaining the lead with 11 minutes of the friendly remaining as Brown-Hill's corner picked out Ward who headed home.