The Nailers included Bastos who had been on the bench in the defeat to Lichfield the previous Saturday and were looking to repeat their good away form as a path to retaining their play-off status.

The Dovecote is always a tough place to go and Belper soon found out that this game would be no different as Dynamo set about Belper from the very start.

Dynamo have play off ambitions themselves and victory on Tuesday evening brought them within four points of Belper’s total albeit with a lower goal difference.

After an opening ten minutes when Dynamo threw everything at the Nailers, South’s 11th minute header almost put Gratton in with an opportunity, but he was crowded out before he could get a shot away.

Bastos was prominent particularly in the first half and his run and cross in the 13th minute found South whose header was deflected wide of goal by a challenging defender.

Bastos looked to have powered his way past the last man on 18 minutes, but to the amazement of all, the referee gave a foul against him as he ran past the defender.

The hosts had the ball in Belper’s net on 21 minutes, but the referee saw an infringement by the scorer on Preston and disallowed the effort.

Bowman sent over a superb cross to the edge of the six-yard area where Wafula forced a fingertip save out of Wallis with his header.

Korpal should have done better with a rare opportunity for Shepshed on 42 minutes, but Preston came to the Nailers’ rescue with a fine save.

The Nailers had showed up well in the first half but after the break it was a different story. The hosts made things very difficult for Belper who had to defend much more than they would have liked, and any opportunities of putting together a move was quickly shut down.

Belper did have set piece opportunities in the 64th, 71st and 74th minute but failed to do anything positive with them by getting caught offside too many times.

Just as a point was looking to be a decent reward for a tough evening’s work, a long ball over the top found Collins who made no mistake with an impressive finish.

With hope now draining away one final free kick opportunity arrived in the 90th minute and Burrows stepped up to deliver a cracker of a shot into the far corner leaving Wallis motionless.

Unfortunately, the Nailers just couldn’t hang on and succumbed deep into added time when Burkey flicked the ball home at the near post.

With five games to go the Nailers must find some way to get over the line but at the moment no one can find a solution to this alarming dip in form that plagued Belper in 2026.

Shepshed Dynamo: Wallis, Timpson, Samples, Cox, Peart, Prenderville, Korpal (Rogers 68), Partridge, Friend, Burkey, Collins (Thistleton 87). Unused subs: Bayliss, Dixon, Ryder.

Belper Town: Preston, Rhodes, Keenan, Fankwe (Burrows 68), Broadhead, Evans, Bastos, Wafula, South, Gratton, Bowman (Moran 69). Unused subs: Austin, Shaw, Hassett.

Referee: Mitchell Cartwright

Att: 357