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Belper Town had to work very hard for a point
against Gary Marrow’s Stocksbridge side on a ‘wintry’ evening at Bracken
Moor.
Steels, bristling with ex Belper Town players are
now under the managership of the former Nailers boss and there was an
edge to the game of the type only usually present when two old
adversaries meet.
Steve Kennedy and Simon Collins formed the basis of
the home team’s defence while in attack Ben Walker and Mark Ward are also
very familiar names from the past.
Belper made just one change to the team that made a
draw against Colwyn Bay in the opening game of the season with Danny
Tollerfield taking over from Andy Carney in goal.
The Bracken Moor pitch was magnificent as always and
the game quickly accelerated to a frantic pace and rarely dropped below
that for the whole 90+ minutes.
Simon Collins hit a free kick straight at
Tollerfield after only 8 minutes and this was followed by a curling
effort from Ben Walker that dropped wickedly over the cross bar.
Danny Toronzcak struck the bar with a close range
effort on 15 minutes after an incisive piece of football by the Nailers
even though a marginal off side decision would have ruled out his effort
anyway.
Darren Schofield moved forward to unleash a powerful
drive just over the bar a moment later and the Nailers had begun to push
Steels back at this stage.
Toronzcak battled his way through but saw his shot
rebound of Richard Siddall on 20 minutes then Andy Rushbury took his eye
off the ball momentarily as it sped across the edge of the six yard area
and he side footed the ball well wide.
Toronzcak was there again on 29 minutes but saw his
shot blocked on the angle only for Rushbury to miss kick the rebound
disappointingly off target.
Lee Stevenson completed a good half for Belper with
a brisk ground shot that was safely collected by Siddall in the Steels
goal.
Belper suffered a torrid 25 minutes in the second
half and there was little respite for the Nailers as the home team won
corner after corner.
The Nailers defence held firm though and slowly they
managed to turn the tide and win possession at the other end of the
field.
Toronzcak almost got the better of the Steels
defenders in the 60th minute but he couldn’t escape the
attentions of Steve Kennedy, and Siddall just got in first ahead of the
Belper striker following a long ball out of the Nailers defence on 67
minutes.
The introduction of James Tevendale livened things
up and within seconds of arriving on the pitch he had Siddall scrambling
across his goal to clutch a 22 yard effort after he surprised the Steels
defence with some good ball control and strong running.
Danny Tollerfield had to save brilliantly from a Ben
Walker screamer on 75 minutes, but it appeared that Belper were slowly
gaining the upper hand.
Then in the 81st minute Tevendale took
the ball deep into the penalty area where a Steels defender up hacked him
down from behind, as he looked set to shoot.
The referee looked unsure about giving a penalty but
the vigorous waving of his assistant’s flag eventually convinced him to
do so, and Toronzcak put Belper ahead from the spot.
It was a short lived lead however as Steels were
back on level terms on 85 minutes after Simon Collins met a near post
corner and headed the ball unchallenged into the net.
This was one of the few moments of lost
concentration by the Belper defence all evening.
There was a sting in the tail of this game after
Anthony Wilson went for a loose ball virtually on the Steels goal line,
it seemed a legitimate challenge but within seconds almost every outfield
player was involved in a mass brawl, which was beyond the control of the
referee.
Eventually Wilson and Steve Kennedy were both shown
the red card.
Nigel Oldrini
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