Danny South’s shock departure was enough to contend with, but Declan Dunn and James Cadman were unavailable as was new loan signing Rhys Dolan who was ill.

Add to this the absence through suspension of top scorer Kevin Bastos and frontman Karl Demidh then manager Lee Attenborough had to shuffle his pack with the remaining players at his disposal.

New signing Tiago Nassunculo went straight into the side while Lewis Austin started a game for the first time after stepping up from the academy, and club captain Phil Watt started his first game for almost two months.

The Nailers, who need to keep picking up points if they are maintain their place in the play-off zone began the game well, and Zak Goodson had a good effort that went wide on 8 minutes as Belper settled.

Goodson was involved again on 11 minutes when he sent Brodie Litchfield away down the left side, and the resulting shot took a deflection straight to Karl Dryden in the Ashington goal.

Belper’s promising start was rewarded on 16 minutes when Sidik Atcha was on hand to place the ball into the far corner of the goal after Ashington failed to clear the ball properly after a corner kick.

Belper’s goal prompted a strong fight back from the visitors who gradually took control of the game and equalised on the half hour.

A poor clearance went straight to Cameron Gascoigne who made no mistake with a fine unstoppable shot from 16 yards.

The Colliers could have taken the lead on 38 minutes, when Benjamin Sampson sent a fierce drive that might have taken a slight deflection via Dan Moore before crashing against the cross bar.

The visitors had the better of the exchanges at the start of the second half and it wasn’t too much of a surprise when they took the lead in the 58th minute. The Nailers had thrown everyone forward to support a promising move only to lose possession.

Within seconds Wilson Kneeshaw had sprinted 30 or 40 yards leaving yellow shirts in his wake and scoring with only Moore to beat.

Mason Warren heralded a better spell for the Nailers when his left foot drive shaved the far post, and while Belper fared better, Kneeshaw should have wrapped up the points on 83 minutes, but Moore deflected his effort on to the post.

Substitute David Gbehe’s shot across the face of goal as the game entered added on time gave the Nailers a faint glimmer of hope that something could be retrieved from the game.

Without any great expectation however, the Nailers managed to find a way of levelling the scores when Atcha struck the ball with the outside of his right foot and curled the ball out of Dryden’s reach and just inside the far post.

It was a stunningly executed strike especially from a central defender and it certainly saved the day for Belper who with a much-changed side showed character and resilience when it was most needed.

Belper Town: Moore, Rhodes (Walker 84), Warren, Austin, Watt (Gbehe 67), Atcha, Goodson, Burrows, Nassunculo, Oliver, Litchfield (Gregory 84).

Ashington: Dryden, Constantin, Exley (Exley 78, Ormston, Jakab, Williams, Sampson, Van-Zandvliet, Maguire, Gascoigne, Kneeshaw. Unused sub: Coombe.

Referee: Joshua Drake.

Att: 453