Phil Watt was still not fully fit and was named as a substitute meaning that Danny South remained in the back four and was also handed the captain’s armband.

James Oliver, signed on loan from Alfreton Town for a second time, made his debut while Brodie Litchfield started a three-game suspension following his dismissal at Newton Aycliffe. Ben Rhodes remains unavailable through injury.

The Nailers expected a stern test from a Carlton side that arrived in seventh place in the league table and would have leap frogged the Nailers if they had won the game.

It was a promising opening from Belper, and they were rewarded as early as the 7th minute when they established a firm foothold in the game by scoring the first goal.

A Mason Warren free kick came to Curtis Burrows who gratefully accepted the opportunity to drill the ball into the goal past a helpless Nikah Liburd-Hines.

Efforts on target from the visitors proved to be a rare commodity and Alex Hardwick’s 27th minute shot went straight to Dan Moore in the Belper goal.

Warren’s free kicks tested the Millers’ rearguard in the 33rd and 45th minutes but South’s attempted headers on goal, from both the dead ball situations, failed to find the target.

Niall Hylton might have changed the course of events on 49 minutes as he wriggled away from his marker, however his attempt on goal hit the side netting leaving the Carlton striker appealing unsuccessfully for a corner kick.

The Nailers tightened their grip on the game in the 55th minute after Liburd-Hines tried and failed to hang on to a cross into the box, and Karl Demidh quickly, and accurately fed the ball into the six-yard area where Danny South was waiting to pounce.

Warren hit another free kick, which this time went straight to the ‘keeper, and debutant James Oliver squeezed the ball in at the near post only for the assistants’ flag to curtail celebrations.

Kevin Bastos treated the crowd to a stunning goal in the 65th minute when he carried the ball along the edge of the penalty area and then took everyone by surprise with a superbly struck shot that sped in just inside the post.

It took just two minutes for the Nailers to secure the points and it was an excellently constructed goal. Warren’s pass was perfectly weighted for James Cadman to collect and run to the bye line whereupon he found Bastos with a pinpoint cross, and Belper’s top scorer took his tally to seventeen for the season.

Niall Davie spurned a chance for a Millers’ consolation inside the final 15 minutes, but the day belonged to the Nailers who had put together an excellent performance and sent a clear message to the rest of the division that they have the quality to be serious contenders at the end of April.

Belper Town: Moore, Burrows. Warren, Dunn, South, Atcha, Goodson (Austin 74), Cadman (Gregory 83), Demidh, Oliver (Gbehe 83), Bastos. Unused subs: Watt, Walker.

Carlton Town: Liburd-Hines, Ebanks (Ebanks 67), Thompson-Harris, Brown, Freeman, Tempest, Adegbola (Dearle 72), Sargent, Hardwick, Davie, Hylton (Ford 60). Unused subs: Annan, Jawarra.

Referee: Anthony Tankard

Att: 572