Nailers Slump Continues

Belper had only won one of their last six games however, they did go into the game with an impressive record away from home, with them only losing one of their 5 away games in the league so far this season.

Market Drayton would have gone into the game expecting a tough test, with them only managing to register one win at home so far this season. The odds looked in the favour of Belper, this being despite a recent run of bad form, with one win in their last six games.

The game opened with an extremely fast tempo and both sides struggling to keep possession whilst going forward. Market Drayton were counter attacking quickly as they tried to catch the Belper defenders out in the first few minutes.

But the centre back partnership of Phil Watt and Gerome Palmer held strong to prevent this barrage of counter attacks from the Market Drayton forwards.

The addition of Matt Richards into the Belper midfield showed an intent to attack from manager Charlie Palmer right from the get go.

This move looked as if it had payed of 5 minutes before the end of the half when Richards was brought down in the area to earn the Nailers a penalty. Alex Steadman stepped up to take the penalty and drilled it towards the top left. But Market Drayton keeper Ashley Rawlins produced an outstanding save to keep the game goalless.

Just before the end of the half, Nailers right back Will Dennis took a knock to his knee while defending a low cross from Market Drayton, he attempted to continue but simply couldn't and so he was substituted at half time in place of Michael Armstrong.

The Nailers continued to press the Market Drayton defence in the second half, particularly through impressive runs from Anthony Griffith-Junior, giving Market Drayton's left back some serious problems.

One of these tricky Griffith-Junior runs gave Alex Steadman another opportunity to give the Nailers the lead, his close range shot was parried over the bar by the keeper easily to earn the Nailers a corner which would inevitably be cleared.

Market Drayton produced another quick counter attack not long after this, earning themselves a corner. The ball was delivered superbly to find Tyrell Payton unmarked in the box, his glancing header found the bottom right to give Market Drayton the lead.

But the Nailers were not willing to give up, with Phil Watt and Eric Graves urging their team mates to keep their heads up and continue to push and get themselves a goal.

The biggest opportunity of the game fell too Ruben Wiggins-Thomas when he found himself one on one with the Market Drayton goalkeeper, the keeper was slightly off his line so Wiggins-Thomas decided to try and lob the keeper, but the execution of this was poor and it seemed as if he would have been better off trying to place the ball into the corners, Wiggins-Thomas couldn't hide his frustration as he knew this was a huge opportunity that he'd wasted.

Belper simply couldn't find themselves an equaliser, continuing their winless run, however the attentions of the Nailers are now turned too AFC Rushden & Diamonds as the Nailers search for their first home win of the season.