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Belper Town
could point to another night of frustration in front of goal as they were
dispatched from the FA Carlsberg Trophy in their Preliminary Round replay
at a sparsely populated Noose Lane.
The Nailers
faced Willenhall with Danny Hudson who was working away whilst Ross
Hannah was nursing a mild groin strain and was not risked in the starting
line-up.
Belper might
have thought that the absence of Willenhall’s man of the match in the
original tie, John Williams, would work in their favour but his
replacement, Jerome Bennett, would soon prove to be equally adept in the
goal scoring stakes.
After repulsing some
early Willenhall pressure, the Nailers might have taken the lead after
just 5 minutes but as Danny Toronczak shaped to shoot from close range,
Liam Newell nipped in smartly to whip the ball off his toes for a corner,
from which Anthony Wilson headed inches over the crossbar.
Willenhall shocked the Nailers with a goal after 19 minutes when Bennett
ran on to a through ball, nudged it past James Colliver and did the same
to goalkeeper Adam Ogden before turning the ball home into an empty net.
And then Bennett added to Belper's woes five minutes later when his low
shot from the edge of the area deceived Ogden and found the net via the
inside of the post.
Belper battled back and
Jon Hobson was unfortunate to see his header cleared off the line by
Newell before Toronczak sent an angled shot whistling past the far post
although the Willenhall goalkeeper might have claimed that he had it
covered.
The Nailers came out for
the second period with all guns blazing.
First, Lee Stevenson saw
his close range effort blocked by ‘keeper Stephen Jackson only for Anthony
Wilson to volley the rebound over the crossbar and then Stevenson tricked
his way through the home defence and could only watch as his shot
squirmed past the far post.
Wilson then swivelled on
the edge of the area to send thunderous shot that again missed the
upright by a fraction and, at that point, supporters sensed that this was
not going to be Belper’s night.
The feeling was
heightened when Peter Smith angled in a shot that looked destined for the
top corner, only for Jackson get his fingers to the ball and divert it
against the outside of the post.
But the Nailers were
given a lifeline after 70 minutes with Anthony Newton headed a Stevenson
corner into his own net.
After that, play became a
little fraught with referee Hollidge hading out yellow cards to all and
sundry, all of which were probably justified as tempers began to rise.
As Belper pushed further
and further forward they were eventually caught out by lack of numbers
after 87 minutes when Newton made amends for his earlier error by sending
a sweetly struck shot beyond Adam Ogden on its way into the top corner.
This was a top draw finish by anyone’s standards.
To their credit, Belper
never gave up the fight and Lee Stevenson reduced the arrears once again
when he crashed home a loose ball just 60 seconds after the Willenhall
goal.
The Nailers piled forward
in the final stages and Stevenson came within a whisker of forcing the
tie into extra time when his half volley rose agonising over the bar as
Willenhall’s nerve and luck held out.
David Laughlin
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