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Belper looked strong candidates for a second successive
defeat at half time in this clash at the Stan Brown Stadium.
Kidsgrove, whose recent form has seen them slip to the
lower reaches of the league held a 1-0 advantage at the break and the
Nailers had been reduced to 10 men following skipper Jon Hobson’s sending
off moments before the whistle.
The kick off was delayed by 15 minutes because of the
late arrival of some of the Belper players, but the Nailers started in
confident mood with an impressive passing movement ending with a
blistering shot from Lee Stevenson that Kidsgrove ‘keeper James Coates
saved brilliantly.
Speedy Junior Brown nearly caught the Nailers out with
a 30 yard run to the edge of the penalty area whereupon he released it to
Neil Edwards following up in support, and Adam Ogden was relieved to see
his shot cannon away off a Belper defender.
Virtually with their next serious attack the home team
took the lead on 22 minutes when Andy Bott’s direct run at the Belper
defence culminated in a vicious shot that flew in off the underside of
the cross bar.
Belper tried to hit back quickly and were unlucky when
Coates pulled off another great save, this time from Krystof Kotylo whose
sweetly struck volley was beaten away by the Kidsgrove custodian.
Ross Hannah escaped the attentions of the home side’s
back line but when he tried to flick the ball past the ‘keeper, Coates
guessed right and got a hand to his shot.
Hannah was on the end of another good move in the 34th
minute but couldn’t keep his shot down and at this stage the Nailers
could consider themselves unlucky not to be in the lead.
Then disaster struck.
Central defender Gary Middleton suffered a hamstring
strain and had to be replaced by Joe Appleyard but not long afterwards,
Andy Bott’s persistence got him goal side of Jon Hobson and the Belper
captain clearly held him back when he was in a goal scoring position.
Hobson received a red card but fortunately Kidsgrove
couldn’t make the most of a free kick on the edge of the penalty area.
The omens didn’t look good for the second half but
Belper didn’t let their numerical disadvantage worry them.
While Kidsgrove periodically posed a threat, Belper
gradually assumed control of the game. Lee Stevenson sent a warning shot
just wide on 50 minutes and although the Nailers played some very good
football it took until the 69th minute for the breakthrough to
come.
It came in similar fashion to Kidsgrove’s opener as
Ross Hannah was pulled down when through on goal, but the key difference
was that a penalty kick was awarded and the referee had no choice but to
dismiss the perpetrator, Mark Beeston.
Once Hannah had tucked away the spot kick the Nailers
looked hot favourites to win the game.
An ever stretched and dispirited Kidsgrove defence
opened up for Hannah to fire in his second of the goal of the evening on
81 minutes and it came as no surprise when the hard working Anthony
Wilson sealed victory with a close range effort in added time.
The Nailers certainly showed the character that joint
manager Andy Carney had called for following their home defeat against
Stocksbridge a few days earlier.
Nigel Oldrini
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