The Opposition - Key Facts
Full name: Rugby Borough Football Club
Nickname: The Boro
Founded: 2017
Ground: Kilsby Lane
Capacity: 1,711
Chairman: Brian Crinigan
Manager: Dave Stringer (since May 2024)
Last season: 3rd/19 (UCL Premier Division South)
Journey distance: 60 miles

The Opposition - History
(From Rugby Borough FC website)
Rugby Borough FC as it is now, began life in 1994 under the name of Rugby Town Junior Football Club, and it was the Junior club who masterminded the development of our home ground facilities at Kilsby Lane.

The site, which is 35 acres, contains 3 full size 3G Astro pitches, 2 medium Astro pitches, and 17 grass pitches. For season 2025/26 over 90 teams will train and play at the site.

The forward vision of the club enabled Rugby Borough FC senior section to be set up in 2017/18. After being accepted into the Leicestershire Senior League Division 1 we became champions in our very first season and were promoted to the Premier Division for 2018/19.

The new season saw Borough win the Premier Division title, but promotion was denied because of a local planning decision delay, preventing us from meeting the ground standards required in the allocated timeframe.

Although the 2019/20 and 20/21 seasons were curtailed by the pandemic there were some major changes going on behind the scenes, culminating in the Junior Boys and Girls, and Senior Men and Women’s sections unifying, and taking the name Rugby Borough Football Club.

Borough fully focussed and ready for the 2021/22 season won the Leicestershire Senior League Premier Division. With the ground now up to standard, promotion to the Spartan South Midlands Division 1 and step 6 of the non-league pyramid was finally achieved. Just a year later promotion to step 5 was achieved at the first attempt, via the playoffs, having finished third in the league during the 2022/23 season.

Season 2023/24 and our first in the United Counties League Premier Division South saw us travelling less, but facing tougher competition, finishing out the season below halfway in the table.

Our second Season in the United Counties League Premier Division under a new management team saw us compete at the very top of the league and finishing a very creditable 3rd.

So, to the playoffs and a home Semi Final against March Town winning the tie 2-0 to reach the final. The team gave everything and came out on top, winning promotion to Step 4 and the Pitching In Northern Premier League.

It’s been quite a journey for the club and to get where we are today is testament to the Volunteers that run the club.

The Opposition - This Season
The Boro started the season with an FA Cup defeat to Kidsgrove Athletic but went undefeated in their first five NPL games, although they did also exit the FA Trophy at the first hurdle, losing away to Sutton Coldfield Town.
October saw only one win from six matches and November a single victory in four.
They struggled for goals during this period, going 11 matches without scoring more than a single goal in a match.
After rounding off the festive period with a win at Coventry Sphinx, 2026 started with three successive defeats but they then went five undefeated before a reversal at Lichfield City last weekend.

League (12th/22): P 34 W 11 D 11 L 12 F 40 A 41 Pts. 44
Cups: P 3 W 0 D 0 L 3 F 2 A 6
FA Cup: Exited at Extra Preliminary Round (Kidsgrove Athletic)
FA Trophy: Exited at Preliminary Round (Sutton Coldfield Town)
County Cup: Exited at Second Round (Walsall)

Top goalscorers (NPL only): Leo Stone (6), Cam Collins (5)
Most minutes played (NPL only): Ellis Myles (3,060), Luke Rowe (2,734)
Biggest victory: 3-0 vs. Corby Town (13th September)
Heaviest defeat: Two goal defeats on four occasions
Highest home attendance: 412 vs. AFC Rushden & Diamonds (13th August)
Average home attendance (NPL): 174 (20th/22)
Most consecutive wins: 2
Most games without a win: 5
Most consecutive defeats: 3
Most games without a defeat: 5

The Nailers
Belper had a great start to the NPL campaign, not losing until matchday ten but did exit the FA Cup at the first hurdle, Kidsgrove Athletic winning in Staffordshire.
There was an early exit from the FA Trophy as well, Rugby Town coming from two goals down to win 3-2 and the league form was up and down after this match, with two wins followed by two defeats and then another two wins before a draw and a defeat!
November was much better with three wins from four matches and the concession of just a single goal.
December started well with four further matches without defeat but it ended with reversals to St. Neots Town and Long Eaton United.
The Nailers have struggled to get any momentum in 2026, with a draw at home to Basford United on New Year's Day followed by a win in the County Cup but then an NPL defeat to Corby Town.
After ending Wellingborough Town's fantastic run with victory in Northamptonshire, Belper drew at home to Coleshill Town and slipped to a 3-1 defeat at Carlton Town the following Saturday but then in midweek came a comprehensive win at Rugby Town.
Four weeks ago the Nailers thought they had won it with an Ioan Evans header in the 85th minute but a Martyn Waghorn penalty for Anstey Nomads secured them a point.
A County Cup exit to Ilkeston Town followed.
The following two weekends saw postponements and the Nailers returned to action last weekend with a goalless draw at the Raygar Stadium.
Appearances wise, two players - Kev Bastos and Curtis Burrows - have appeared in every match this season.
In terms of goals, Bastos leads the way with ten, closely followed by Liam Moran and Jacob Gratton with nine. Jacob Fenton scored four before his move away from the Raygar Stadium while four players sit on four goals. Five players have three goals or fewer.

Head to Head
The meeting at Belper back in November was the first between the sides.
Boro took the lead in the fifth minute before Jacob Fenton powered home a header to equalise.
Overall record for Belper: P 1 W 0 D 1 L 0 F 1 A 1 (NPL Step 4).

Form Guide (all competitive matches)
Rugby Borough: WDDWWL
Belper Town: DLWDLD

Team News
Full team news will be announced at 2:15pm.

Permutations
Belper cannot climb a place as Basford United have a five point advantage (albeit the Nailers have two games in hand).
Three teams below us are ready to pounce if we slip up although AFC Rushden & Diamonds would require a hugely unlikely goal difference swing.
That goal difference (+18) is bettered by only two sides and means a Belper win will almost certainly maintain 4th spot.
As for Boro, they are in the tightly congested middle part of the table which gets mentioned every week!
They can climb to 8th if they win and results go their way, while 16th is the lowest they can drop.

Match details
Rugby Borough vs. Belper Town
Pitching In Northern Premier League Midlands Division

Saturday, 14th March 2026 - 3:00pm kick off

Nationwide Windows Arena
Kilsby Lane
Rugby
CV21 4PN

Admission prices: Adults £10, Concessions £5, U18s £0

Follow the match
Full coverage of the match:

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

NPL Midlands fixtures
(7th) AFC Rushden & Diamonds vs. Boldmere St. Michaels (16th)
(3rd) Basford United vs. Coventry Sphinx (17th)
(18th) Bedworth United vs. Anstey Nomads (2nd)
(19th) Bourne Town vs. Lichfield City (10th)
(1st) Carlton Town vs. Corby Town (13th)
(11th) Racing Club Warwick vs. Wellingborough Town (6th)
(12th) Rugby Borough vs. Belper Town (4th)
(21st) Rugby Town vs. Long Eaton United (14th)
(9th) Shepshed Dynamo vs. Mickleover FC (8th)
(22nd) St. Neots Town vs. Loughborough Students (20th)
(15th) Sutton Coldfield Town vs. Coleshill Town (5th)