The Opposition - History
The club was established in 1964 as Miners Arms, a Sunday league team based at the pub from which they took their name. They joined the Elmet Sunday League, where they played until joining the Leeds Sunday Combination in 1972. In 1976 the club switched to Saturday football, joining the West Yorkshire League. They applied to join the Yorkshire League for the following season, and after being advised that pub teams were not allowed in the league, adopted the name Garforth Miners.

In 1978 Garforth were elected to Division Three of the Yorkshire League. They finished second-from-bottom of the table in their first season, but were Division Three runners-up in 1979–80, earning promotion to Division Two. When the league merged with the Midland League in 1982 to form the Northern Counties East League, the club were placed in Division One North. In 1985 they were renamed again, becoming Garforth Town. League reorganisation saw them placed in Division Two in 1985 and they went on to finish as runners-up, earning promotion to Division One. Although they were Division One runners-up in 1996–97, also winning the League Trophy, the club were not promoted to the Premier Division. However, they were Division One champions the following season, and were promoted. They also won the West Riding County Cup for the first time with a 1–0 win over Liversedge in the final. In 1999–2000 they both won the League Cup (beating Glapwell 3–1 in the final) and the West Riding County Cup (winning 2–0 against Eccleshill United in the final).

Garforth finished bottom of the Premier Division in 2001–02, but avoided relegation after Denaby United folded. However, the following season saw them finish bottom again, and they were relegated to Division One. In 2003 the club were taken over by Simon Clifford, who stated that his ambition was to take the club into the Football League. He took over as manager early in the 2004–05 season and made several high-profile signings, including Brazilian Sócrates (who made one appearance as a substitute) and Lee Sharpe. They finished as Division One runners-up, earning promotion back to the Premier Division. Another Brazilian, Careca, played for the club in a friendly that summer. In 2006–07 a fourth-place finish was enough to earn promotion to Division One North of the Northern Premier League.

In 2008–09 Garforth won the West Riding County Cup for a third time, beating Bradford Park Avenue in the final. They retained the cup the following season, defeating Barnoldswick Town in the final. In 2011–12 they finished fifth, qualifying for the promotion play-offs, but lost 4–1 on penalties to Curzon Ashton in the semi-finals after a 2–2 draw. They were bought by former Southampton chairman Rupert Lowe in December 2012, but the 2012–13 season saw the club finish bottom of Division One North, resulting in relegation back to the Northern Counties East League. Lowe left the club in 2015.

In 2023–24 Garforth finished third in the Premier Division. In the subsequent play-offs they defeated Rossington Main on penalties in the semi-final and then beat Albion Sports on penalties in the final, earning promotion to Division One East of the Northern Premier League.
(Source - Wikipedia)

Manager Paul Marshall took over in October 2019.

A journey of around 68 miles awaits them today.

The Opposition - This Season
The Miners had a great start on their return to Step 4, going unbeaten in their first seven matches in all competitions before suffering three defeats in a row including an exit from both the FA Cup and Trophy.
A thrilling 4-3 win at Sheffield was followed by another run of three defeats without scoring but once again they bounced back to win three out of four towards the end of October.
Around this time they played five successive away matches and won three of them before returning to HQ and dispatching Sherwood Colliery and Sheffield either side of defeat to Dunston.
The festive period was mixed as they thrashed Sheffield and Ossett but came unstuck at Liversedge and Carlton.
They didn't play a match between 28th December and 18th January but there were no signs of rust as they went four unbeaten.
Their form stuttered again in February as they failed to score in three out of four games but picked up a great win at Bradford (Park Avenue).

League (8th): P 32 W 14 D 7 L 11 F 46 A 37 Pts. 49
Cups: P 6 W 3 D 1 L 2 F 10 A 8

Top goalscorers: Charlie Marshall (9), Matt Antcliff and Max Tweddle (7 each)
Most appearances: Charlie Marshall (38), Harry Flatters (37), Rinor Ejupi (36)
Biggest victory: 4-0 vs. Sheffield (6th December)
Heaviest defeat: 0-3 vs. Stocksbridge (28th September) and 1-4 vs. Cleethorpes (2nd November)
Highest home attendance: 1,186 vs. Bury (31st August)
Average home attendance: 285 (13th/22)
Most consecutive wins: 2
Most games without a win: 3
Most consecutive defeats: 3
Most games without a defeat: 6

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.
Two weeks ago saw a thrilling 3-3 draw at Newton Aycliffe while the following Tuesday it was a first goalless draw for nearly a year, at Pontefract.
Last weekend the points were shared for the third game in a row as ten-man Belper returned from Consett with a 1-1 draw.
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 sides have met on just two occasions.
In a 2008 FA Trophy match, Garforth won 2-0 in front of 143 spectators in West Yorkshire.
Our next meeting didn't come around until earlier this season when Luke Rawson gave the Nailers the lead in West Yorkshire before Max Bauer salvaged a point for Garforth.
Record for Belper: P 2 W 0 D 1 L 1 F 1 A 3.

Form Guide (all comps)
Belper Town: LWLDDD
Garforth Town: WDLDWL

Team News
Ioan Evans begins his ban while new signings Jaanai Gordon and Jonathan Wafula are available for selection.

Permutations
Top spot is now 12 points away and Emley in 2nd have a five point advantage so Belper cannot climb a place.
Three draws (albeit tough away fixtures) have left the Nailers vulnerable to being caught from behind.
North Ferriby will leapfrog us if they better our result while Dunston need a win coupled with us dropping points.
Belper are guaranteed to finish the afternoon inside the playoff places.
For Garforth, they cannot climb a place, with Stocksbridge's win on Wednesday taking them five points clear in 7th.
They also cannot drop a place due to Bradford (Park Avenue) being four points back so they are effectively locked in to 8th position this weekend.

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

Saturday, 1st March 2025 - 3:00pm kick off

Raygar Stadium
Bridge Street
Belper
Derbyshire
DE56 1BA

Admission prices: Adults £11, Concessions (under 16 and 60+) £7, Under 11 (with paying adult) £0
Cash and card accepted on the turnstiles.

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
Our match could make an argument for game of the day, with a playoff team against one fighting to get in.
But it probably goes to the intriguing encounter at Dunston where Emley are the visitors and this is a good fixture for Belper with it involving two teams in close proximity in the table.

(13th) Ashington AFC vs. North Ferriby (4th)
(3rd) Belper Town vs. Garforth Town (8th)
(9th) Bradford (Park Avenue) vs. Ossett United (15th)
(17th) Brighouse Town vs. Stocksbridge Park Steels (7th)
(1st) Cleethorpes Town vs. Sherwood Colliery (21st)
(5th) Dunston vs. Emley AFC (2nd)
(18th) Heaton Stannington vs. Carlton Town (10th)
(20th) Liversedge vs. Consett AFC (16th)
(6th) Newton Aycliffe vs. Grimsby Borough (14th)
(12th) Pontefract Collieries vs. Bridlington Town (19th)
(22nd) Sheffield vs. Bishop Auckland (11th)