Nailers held to goalless draw

PHOTO: Ross Parker leaves the field after an early injury (Pic: Tim Harrison)

The Nailers had not lost an away league fixture against Chasetown, with 3 draws and 3 wins in their six previous meetings at the Scholars Ground, and manager Charlie Palmer was looking for this to continue.

However, Palmer would have been worried early on as the Nailers suffered two injuries midway through the first half, as Matt Richards and Ross Parker had to be substituted with worrying injuries. They were replaced by Mike Armstrong and Gerome Palmer respectively..

The first major opportunity of the game fell to the substitute Mike Armstrong.

A promising cross from the right hand side looked to sit up perfectly for Armstrong but he volleyed the shot narrowly wide causing no real problems for the Chasetown goalkeeper.

For most of the half, Chasetown played a succession of long balls towards their forwards but Phil Watt, making his 100th appearance for the Nailers, and defensive partner Ross Parker were commanding in the air.

However, the clearest chance of the first half fell to the home side. A cross from the right initially cleared the Chasetown forwards but when the ball was played back into the box to Mitch Piggon, the Chasetown striker couldn't get a clean contact on his shot and it was eventually cleared.

A sudden downpour of rain at the end of the half was enough to make the surface very difficult for the players.as the second half got underway

The difficulty of the surface was illustrated in the 52nd minute.Ruben Wiggins-Thomas put in a fantastic low ball towards the feet of Alex Steadman, but as the Belper forward went to strike the ball he slipped and failed get a proper connection on the ball, making an easy save for goalkeeper, John Bateman..

The stand out moment of the game was the dismissal of Chasetown defender Matt Wood, the referee deciding that his crunching tackle on Belper Town skipper Eric Graves was deserving of a straight red card.

But this would not be the final red card of the afternoon.

Chasetown manager Dave Stringer was ordered to leave his technical area by the referee,but controversially he was allowed to stand beside the dugout and still able to give instructions to his players..

The Nailers took control of the game from that moment, creating a number of chances, the best of which came through a crashing volley from Johno Williams that was brilliantly palmed away by Bateman

Chasetown: Bateman, Curley, Wood, Slater, Ashman, Dance, Rooney, Langston, Piggon, Sullivan, Wynter. Subs; Ruff, Brown, Kiembi, Lake-Gaskin, Banks.

Belper Town: Haystead, Bryant (Gatter), Guy, Graves, Parker (G Palmer), Watt, Richards (Armstrong), Williams, Wiggins-Thomas, Hollis, Steadman. Other Subs; Ball, J Palmer

Referee::Neil Pratt (Birmingham)

Attendance: 168