Nailers eliminated in 5-4 thriller against Alfreton

The Nailers took the lead four times before Alfreton gained the lead late on to progress to the next round of the competition.

This fixture came after a 4-3 victory against Basford United in the first qualifying round of the FA Youth Cup.

The Nailers started extremely brightly when they took the lead through Sam Birks just 11 minutes in.

Birks stood over a free-kick from the edge of the box, he curled the ball into the bottom right brilliantly to give Belper the best start that they could have hoped for.

But just 5 minutes later, Alfreton equalized, a long ball came forward that was aimed for Danny Darlow, but Sam Lee beat him to the ball in the air and aimed to head out for a corner, but to the dismay of Lee, his header curled just under the crossbar to level the game.

Later in the half came one of the most frantic 3 minutes of football imaginable, with 3 goals going in during that space of time.

This started with the Nailers restoring their lead, this time Sam Birks turned provider as he put a superb cross into Joe Brumby who buried his header superbly into the back of the net.

Then just a minute later, Callum Angel brought the game level again for Alfreton, Ellis Evans played a good pass to him in the box, he turned well and then finished into the bottom right, well out of the reach of Sam Gilbert in the Belper Town goal.

Joel Cain restored the lead for the Nailers, just 2 minutes after this, in incredible fashion. His free-kick from the halfway line was searching for the head of a Belper attacker. However, his cross bounced awkwardly in front of the Alfreton Town goalkeeper and sailed over his head into the back of the net to restore the Nailers lead.

This deluge of goals continued in the second half, Ellis Evans brought Alfreton level once again, his low shot from the edge of the box found the bottom left corner perfectly to make it impossible for the Belper Town keeper to stop.

Sam Birks soon found himself on the score sheet again, he converted Joel Cain’s cross from close range to give the Nailers the lead for the fourth time, making it 4-3.

But then a spectacular 5 minutes from Moziah Selassie whipped away the Nailers lead.

He started with a superb diving header that he converted from a Danny Darlow cross on the 72nd minute to bring the game level once again.

Selassie then gave Alfreton the lead for the first time in the game, a low cross found Selassie who made a late run into the box, he took a touch before striking the ball into the right side of the goal to make it 5-4.

The Nailers pushed to try and get an equalizer late on but they couldn’t break through the Alfreton defence.

The Belper Town academy players battled well but Alfreton Town just seemed to have too much for them in the second half.