Many will point to an abysmal refereeing display that yielded ten yellow cards, with two leading to reds on the Belper side, and five yellows plus a red card for Cleethorpes, but that doesn’t tell the whole of the story.

There’s no hiding from the fact that the Nailers are a shadow of their former selves who spent so long at the top of the table in the early months of the season. Now they have slumped to seventh place, with their play offs hopes seemingly diminishing with every game they play.

All is not lost however but the run in looks even more ominous than it did a week ago, with Hebburn clearly able to overhaul leaders Stockton, and they are Belper’s next opponents.

If the Nailers are to progress, they will have to do it without Kevin Bastos who was sent off again, and Ben Rhodes who was the victim of a bewildering decision that led to a second yellow card.

Manager Lee Attenborough left out Mason Frizelle and Declan Dunn who both dropped to the bench and reinstated club captain Phil Watt and Karl Demidh who returned from suspension.

The Nailers made a promising start and forced two corners in quick succession without creating an opportunity, but early hopes were dashed when Alex Flett scored with a deflected free kick in the 9th minute.

Josh Venney had a crisply struck shot saved by Dan Moore on 15 minutes, and soon afterwards the Nailers forged a difficult opening for Kevin Bastos who just couldn’t reach a James Cadman cross on 24 minutes.

On the half hour mark things started to go downhill for the Nailers when Rhodes was shown a second yellow card for allegedly making a remark to the referee when in fact he said it was directed to a teammate.

When the game eventually restarted, the visitors went further ahead when Paul Walker benefitted from some clever work from Flett and volleyed the ball high into the net from close range.

Moore was on hand to prevent a third goal when he beat away a shot from Harvey Tomlinson, but the Owl’s striker wasn’t to be denied as he tapped the ball in following a breakaway on 42 minutes.

The Nailers received a glimmer of hope early in the second half when Josh Walker pushed over Bastos, but any hopes of clawing a goal back faded when Belper’s top scorer tamely hit the spot kick and was saved.

It was soon to be four nil to the Owls when Curtis Bateman cut inside and received the benefit of a deflection as his shot beat Moore. Josh Walker should have got Cleethorpe’s fifth but put an easy chance over the bar in the 70th minute.

Tomlinson then had a shot kicked off the line, moments before Keiran Walker conceded a penalty kick after fouling Josh Walker. Flett struck the spot high into the net and the demolition of the Nailers was complete.

Bateson almost made it six on 83 minutes, but his shot hit the cross bar, and then Jordon Cooke received a straight red for a lunging tackle on Lewis Austin.

If things weren’t bad enough Bastos received a second yellow in the 89th minute and will miss more games in the future.

There’s no doubt that there is much work to do to ensure no further repeats of these last two performances, especially with the calibre of the remaining four games coming up in the final week of the season.

Belper Town: Moore, Rhodes, Warren, Burrows, Watt, Atcha, Goodson (Austn 67), Litchfield (K Walker 45), Demidh, Cadman (Dunn 61), Bastos. Unused subs: Frizelle, Oliver.

Cleethorpes Town: Bottomley, Jamieson (Boyd 77), Adelekan, Kay, P Walker, Middleton (Cooke 53), Tomlinson, Flett (Adamson 77), J Walker, Venney, Bateson. Unused subs: Pearson, Annan.

Referee: Karl Parker

Att: 473