Nailers come from behind to defeat Ashby Ivanhoe

Belper Town returned to action, facing Ashby Ivanhoe in their first pre-season friendly of the year.

The Nailers faced the Leicestershire-based club in this ‘behind closed doors’ friendly due to Ivanhoe’s regular ground being unavailable, meaning that fans from both clubs were ultimately disappointed not to be able to watch the game.

The Nailers found themselves a goal down after just 19 minutes when a well-delivered free kick was assisted by some poor defending that enabled an Ivanhoe forward head home.

This came moments after Jordan Ball had crashed a shot against the crossbar.

Ivanhoe went on to extend their lead on the 30-minute mark as striker Danny Quinn a player with huge experience in non-league football, scored after another piece of poor defending had created the opportunity for the home side.

However, the Nailers were clearly unwilling to capitulate and just 9 minutes later they narrowed the lead when Reuben Wiggins-Thomas pulled a goal back and restore confidence in the team.

Belper’s defiant mood continued and just a minute later they found themselves on level terms.

The Nailers pressed well, quickly regaining possession from kick off, and when the ball found its way to Jordan Ball, the striker finished well to make it 2-2 going into the break.

Belper had done well to make the game all square, but they will have known that they would need to step up a gear in the second half and ensure that defensive mistakes were eliminated.

The Nailers controlled the opening minutes of the half and began to look more in control of the game, benefitting from enjoying the majority of ball possession and which led to Belper taking the lead for the first time in the game,

68 minutes in, a good delivery from a corner fell to the feet of defender Ross Parker who hammered home for the Nailers.

The game proceeded to be dominated by the Nailers, with the defence now snuffing out any chances that Ashby Ivanhoe might have had.

The pressing and hard work that Charlie Palmer had asked of his players was now clearly visible as it was obvious that players were buying into his ideas.

Continued pressing saw Belper’s most recent signing, Jermaine Hollis, steal the ball from an Ivanhoe defender, before laying the ball off well and saw it finished easily by one of the triallists on the day, to make the final score 4-2.