Belper Town will be heading into the 2016/17 season looking to improve on last seasons 13th place finish in The Northern Premier League Division One South, but before they can do this, they must battle through what looks to be an exciting pre-season for The Nailers.

Belper Town begin their busy set pre-season on the 16th of July when they travel to Ashby Ivanhoe. The Leicestershire based club are currently in the East Midlands Counties League, 2 leagues below The Nailers.

The Knights managed a 3rd place finish last season and will be hoping to improve on that this season by gaining themselves promotion. They will be looking for a big start to their season and will most certainly not be an easy opponent for Belper Town to open with.

5 days later, The Nailers are on the road again to face another member of the East Midlands Counties League, this time they will be lining up against South Normanton Athletic Football Club, just 11 miles down the road from the Marston’s Stadium.

Similarly to Ashby Ivanhoe, South Normanton Athletic will be looking to gain promotion this season after a very impressive 4th place last season, they are certainly not a team to be underestimated, however Belper Town will feel that this is a game they should certainly be getting a result from.

The Nailers find themselves on the road again, just 2 days later on the 23rd of June as they travel to fellow Derbyshire based side, Staveley Miners Welfare F.C.

The Trojans currently find themselves in the Northern Counties East League Premier Division, just one tier below Belper Town, this is a clear raise in the quality of their opponents and The Nailers will be hoping that they can deal with this challenge as the players look to impress Charlie Palmer and stake their claim in the starting line up.

After all of the travelling that The Nailers will have done at this point in their pre-season campaign, they will then find themselves with 3 consecutive games at home, kicking this run off with a visit from Nuneaton Town.

Nuneaton Town are currently plying their trade in the National League North after finishing just outside the play-offs last season and will be looking to improve on that this season by pushing their way into the National League.

The Nuneaton squad includes a number of players who have previously played in the Football League, including Marlon Harewood, a man who previously made a number of appearances for Aston Villa while the Midlands club were regularly in the Premier League.

Belper Town will certainly go into this game as underdogs, however they will feel that they are capable of causing an upset which will no doubt raise the morale of the entire squad going into the season.

The Nailers will then line up for their second home game of the pre-season when they face Coleshill Town. The Birmingham based club will be Belper Town’s second opponent who are currently 1 tier below them, as they are currently playing in the Midland League Premier Division. This game will take place on the 30th of July, kicking off at 3pm.

The Nailers then go into their biggest game of their pre-season when they line up against Burton Albion, a side who impressively got promoted to the Championship this season, only falling behind League One champions Wigan Athletic.

Burton Albion have a huge reputation currently, with them making their way to the Championship despite being in the Conference only 5 years earlier. Many Non-League clubs will look at what Burton Albion have done and try and see how they can emulate what they did to get into such an amazing position.

This is certainly a game that no Nailers fan will want to miss and the players will be wanting to pull out a huge result, not only for the fans, but also to show exactly what they are capable of and send a message out to the rest of the league.

After this huge occasion, Belper Town will travel for the final time in this pre-season, the travelling for The Nailers will end with a visit to Ilkeston FC of the Northern Premier League Premier Division.

This will be a fantastic test for The Nailers as they will be facing a team who are currently in a division that they will have ambitions to climb into in the near future. Facing a team from this division will help Charlie Palmer see what his players can do against a team in this division and also what it is he needs to add to his team in order to get to this level.

The curtain will fall on Belper Town’s pre-season at the Marston's Stadium as they face another member of the Northern Premier League Premier Division, this time they will go head to head with Matlock Town.

This will be the players last chance to impress the manager, Charlie Palmer, in order to try and make sure that they will be lining up in The Nailers first league game of the season.

This is another opponent that Charlie Palmer and the rest of the Belper Town squad will be hoping to learn from and will be looking to cause an upset, going into their opening match.