The Basford United players clearly struggled to deal with the extreme winds at Greenwich Avenue in the first half of the game, with a number of passes going wayward because of the conditions.

Belper Town made the most of the difficulties that Basford United were facing as the Nailers opened the scoring 15 minutes through Matt Richards.

His shot from 30 yards out went straight over Basford United goalkeeper Saul Deeney, hitting the post before nestling into the back of the net and giving Belper Town the lead.

Just 10 minutes later this lead was doubled, Reuben Wiggins-Thomas picked up the ball around 25 yards away from the goal, he carried the ball forward remarkably well as he breezed past three Basford United defenders before coolly finishing from the edge of the area into the bottom right hand corner of the goal.

This was not the end of the first half rampage by the Nailers as Matt Richards doubled his goal tally. Some quick passing play by the Belper Town players ended up finding Richards on the edge of the Basford United area, his hard and low shot was too much for the goalkeeper and this made the score 3-0 to the Nailers.

The Nailers found it much more difficult to break down the Basford United defence in the second half as it was their turn to face the high wind..

However, Basford were also having difficulty breaking down a solid Nailers defence and often resorted to a number of shots from distance, none of which caused goalkeeper Danny Haystead any problems.

In the 57th minute, Belper Town brought on Charlie Gatter to make his first appearance for the Nailers after signing on loan from Burton Albion earlier on in the week. Charlie Palmer will have been looking to bring extra quality into his defence and the young centre back should certainly do that.

Basford United got themselves back into the game in the 73rd minute, Danny Haystead made a decent save, but he couldn’t hold onto the ball so it went back into the crowded penalty area, the ball fell to the feet of Mason Rowley who capitalised on the opportunity to make it 3-1.

The 3-goal lead of the Nailers was restored shortly afterwards. Alex Steadman brought down a long ball forward expertly, and calmly took the ball around the Basford United goalkeeper before slotting the ball home and making the result a virtual certainty.

United got themselves a consolation goal five minutes from time. Substitute Ben Hutchinson’s free kick was drilled into the top left hand corner of the goal, with Danny Haystead standing no chance of getting a hand to it.

Basford United: Deeney, McNicholas, Bennett, Smith, Darkin, Rowley, Grantham, Grayson, Hooton, Sheridan, Dixon. Subs: Bopp, Bertram, Spiers, Walker, Wood, Hutchinson

Belper Town: Haystead, Bryant, Guy, Graves, G Palmer, Watt, Richards, Williams, Wiggins-Thomas, Hollis, Steadman. Subs: Ball, J Palmer, Gatter, Parker, Allen, Constable, Rathbone

Referee: Kevin Saunby

Attendance: 183