The Opposition - History
Football in the town can be traced back to the 19th century when Pontefract Garrison competed in the West Yorkshire League.
Pontefract Borough are known to have reached the Yorkshire League in the late 1920s.
They then ceased to exist, with football in Pontefract being resurrected in 1935 by Tanshelf Gems and they soon became Pontefract United.
After the war they were joined in the town by the Collieries side and by the late 1950s both sides were playing in the West Yorkshire League.
Collieries became extinct in 1960 but bounced back a couple of years later when United merged with a local youth side and took the name on.
They enjoyed success in the West Yorkshire League and joined the Yorkshire League in 1979, winning Division Three in 1982.
The following year the Yorkshire and Midland Leagues combined to form the Northern Counties East League, of which Colls were founder members.
They were promoted in each of the first two seasons of its existence and held their position in the NCEL Premier for a decade.
They eventually suffered relegation in 1995 but bounced straight back, picking up the Wilkinson Sword Trophy the same season.
A further relegation followed in 2002 and it would be 2015 before they returned to the Premier. The 2007/08 season in particular was a disaster for the Colls who won the first game of the season but failed to pick up another victory. Only a league restructure saved them from relegation.
In 2018 they secured over 100 points to win the NCEL Prem and reach the NPL.
In their first season they finished 2nd in the East Division but lost out to Brighouse Town in the play-offs.
The last few seasons since the Covid abandoned ones have seen them finish 12th, 10th and 4th.
(Source: Pontefract Collieries website)

Manager Jimmy Williams took over in May 2024.

A journey of around 60 miles awaits the Nailers this evening.

The Opposition - This Season
The Colls started the season with defeat at Dunston but bounced back with wins over Heaton Stannington and Redcar Athletic (Cup).
A draw at home to Garforth was followed by victory at Ossett but they finished August with a heavy defeat away to Sheffield.
September saw the FA Trophy run come to an end at City of Liverpool and a run of four games without scoring.
However they found their feet with four successive victories before another run of defeats as they played seven games out of eight away from the Hunters Stadium.
They struggled over the festive period, picking up just one point in December and due to postponements they didn't kick off 2025 until the 18th of January at Carlton. They lost both this match and the following one at Bradford (Park Avenue) heavily but have picked up in recent weeks - they have collected 8 points from the last 12 available and are undefeated in four matches.

League (15th): P 28 W 8 D 8 L 12 F 39 A 49 Pts. 32
Cups: P 5 W 2 D 0 L 2 F 5 A 10

Top goalscorers: Jack Boyle (10), Mikey Dunn (7)
Most appearances: Jack Boyle & Oli Metcalfe (32 each), Harry Spratt & Elliot Walker (31 each)
Biggest victory: 3-0 vs. Heaton Stannington (13 August), Redcar Athletic (17th August) and Ossett United (26th August)
Heaviest defeat: 0-5 vs. Sheffield (31st August)
Highest home attendance: 392 vs. Garforth Town (24th August)
Average home attendance: 263 (14th/22)
Most consecutive wins: 4
Most games without a win: 11
Most consecutive defeats: 3
Most games without a defeat: 4

The Nailers
Belper had a dream start to the season, winning their opening two NPL games and FA Cup opener against Lutterworth Town.
Defeat at Emley was just a minor blip as the Nailers bounced back with wins over Bridlington Town and Sherwood Colliery.
An exit from the FA Cup followed at the hands of Bromsgrove Sporting and then after a fine performance and win at North Ferriby it was disappointment in a home defeat to Cleethorpes Town.
This kickstarted a five game winning run which ended with two poor home performances against Brighouse Town and today's hosts, both matches were lost 2-0.
After a win at Carlton Town came a penalty shootout exit from the FA Trophy at Chasetown and then a crazy 6-4 win over Consett.
This began another good run of four wins in a row but following this Belper failed to win in four.
More back to back wins followed, four again but that run ended on the 14th of January and the Nailers then lost five out of six and conceded 17 goals.
Saturday saw a thrilling 3-3 draw at Newton Aycliffe.
Harry Draper is well clear as leading goalscorer with 23 while Luke Rawson picked up 10 before re-joining Stocksbridge and Curtis Burrows sits on seven.

Head to Head
The two sides met on many occasions in the NCEL, and the fixture has been played 35 times in total, plus one match which was abandoned.
Belper enjoyed the better of things in the 1980s, winning five out of the first six league encounters but Colls won the first overall, a NCE League Cup tie in February 1984.
Between October 1986 and September 1990, the Nailers won only one out of seven but bounced back to win three of the next four including a thrilling FA Vase Preliminary Round tie which finished 4-3.
Pontefract then took a strangle hold of the fixture again, winning 4-1 in December 1992 and 5-1 in September 1993.
January of the following year saw Belper win 4-1, the first of a run where they won six out of seven, with the other a draw in August 1994.
The sides didn't meet from March 1997 until October 2018 when goals from Robson, Peterson and Milner saw Belper come out on top 3-2.
The Colls had been on a three match winning streak - 4-2 in January 2019 and 3-1 & 3-0 last season - before the Nailers won 3-0 at the Raygar Stadium back in November.
Overall record for Belper: P 35 W 17 D 5 L 13 (+ 1 abandoned) F 60 A 56.
(3 x NCE League Cup, 2 x Presidents Cup, 1 x FA Vase, 24 x NCEL, 5 x NPL)

Form Guide (all comps)
Pontefract Collieries: LLWWDD
Belper Town: LLLWLD

Team News
Jack Broadhead serves the second and final match of his ban.
New signing Harry Wood is available to make his debut if selected.

Permutations
The Nailers cannot climb a place this evening, with Emley six points ahead and Cleethorpes seven.
They will finish the evening in 3rd place whatever the result, with neither North Ferriby nor Dunston in action (the latter travel to Brighouse tomorrow).
For the hosts, they will climb a place to 14th if they win and Consett lose at Cleethorpes.
Both Ossett and Liversedge could leapfrog them if they pick up a better result.

Match details
Pontefract Collieries vs. Belper Town
Northern Premier League Division One East

Tuesday, 18th February 2025 - 7:45pm kick off

The Hunters Stadium
Beechnut Lane
Pontefract
WF8 4FU

Admission prices: £9 / £6 / £3.

Online tickets available Here

The hosts ask fans to park at the raised section of the car park and to then walk down to the ground, leaving plenty of space for players, staff, committee members and those with disabled parking needs.

A full Matchday Guide for visitors can be found Here.

Follow the match
Full coverage of the match:

Audio commentary with Tom on Radio Belper Town
Full text coverage on X, Facebook and Bluesky
Match reports on the website (all matches) and in the Non-League Paper (Saturday matches only)

NPL East Fixtures
Two of the top three and all of the bottom three are in action on Tuesday while on Wednesday Dunston have a chance to make up ground on the Nailers.

Tuesday
(11th) Bishop Auckland vs. Sherwood Colliery (21st)
(9th) Bradford (Park Avenue) vs. Garforth Town (8th)
(1st) Cleethorpes Town vs. Consett AFC (14th)
(6th) Newton Aycliffe vs. Liversedge (18th)
(16th) Ossett United vs. Bridlington Town (20th)
(15th) Pontefract Collieries vs. Belper Town (3rd)
(22nd) Sheffield vs. Carlton Town (10th)