“Lincoln draw shows how far we’ve come” says boss Black

“I think we would have taken a point before the game, definitely. Being 2-1 up was frustrating a little bit, but, that’s a sign of how far we’ve come as a team,” Black (pictured) said after the contest.

“I think we shaded it to be fair, I’ll be honest. I think we had the better of the chances, but there wasn’t much in it, there was never going to be.

“Lincoln are a really good side because they’re fifth in the league but I thought it was a really good performance from us in tricky conditions, obviously, for both teams. But I thought we adapted well to that and played well.”

Speaking about conceding the second equaliser, he said: “At 2-1, it was a bit of a scrappy goal to concede, so that’s frustrating but I think it’s a sign of how far we have come as a team.

“We played Lincoln two or three games into the season and got tanked 5-2, and it could have been 10.

“They’ve strengthened since then, so it’s a point we have taken off a team around us and two points we’ve stopped them from getting as well. So, all in all, I think it’s a good result.”

New signing from Maltby Main, striker Ross Duggan got off to a flying start for the Nailers, by scoring a well-taken goal on his debut for the club.

Black was impressed with the forward, saying: “It’s always pleasing when you bring a new a player in and he starts like that.

“Obviously, he scored his goal and I think his all-round play was really good, he worked incredibly hard which we knew he was going to do.

“We’ve seen him, we know what he’s about and that’s why he’ll fit well into our group because he’s a hard-working lad.

“He chases everything down, doesn’t give defenders a second and he had four or five efforts as well which on another day might have gone in,” the Belper boss added.

This was Belper’s final match before Christmas with Black also giving his thoughts on the season so far, adding: “I think the club would probably say that they are in front of where they’d have expected to be and I think the process is well in front of where we expected it to be.

“We’re in the quarter-finals of the Integro League Cup, we sat joint-fifth in the league with a game in hand on a couple of teams so I think we’ve got to be more than happy with where we’re at and not get carried away because there’s still 60 odd points left to play for yet.

“We’ve a long way to get to where we want to be, but we wanted to be part of the play-off chasing pack at Christmas and we are.

“So, we’re in front of where we should be and we are really happy with what we’re building and what we’re doing,” stated Black.