Stocksbridge Park Steels 1 Belper Town 0
The third of three away trips and another game where a draw would be more than acceptable for Belper. Never an easy place to go to, Bracken Moor is always a welcoming ground with decent facilities and friendly people. Scribbler was convinced he knew the way to the ground as it is one of the most visited away venues for Belper. So no problem finding it then ? Except for the unforeseen diversion which meant a trip across the top of the valley with the floodlights in view above the massive steelworks below to our left. The detour turned out to be no more than a minor blip and we arrived at the top of the hill outside the ground around 7:10pm.
Saturdays game had taken it’s toll and Hobbo was out, but both Kots and Barney took their places in the starting line up. In the Steels 11 were Mark Ward and Darren Schofield, both former nailers, with Gary Marrow and Gary Ingham as manager and assistant on the touchline.
The first half was a scrappy affair with Steels dangerman Vardy hitting the post early doors. Belper scrapped for everyball and went in at the break at 0-0. Ant Wilson was his usual handful for the Steels defence although Belper never took advantage of the large centre half Brett Lovell by keeping the ball on the ground and letting Ant run at him.
The 2nd half was a similar affair although Belper had a good spell with both Ben and Eric Graves forcing the Steels keeper into flying saves. The game was looking more and more like a 0-0 score until the substitutes that were to change everything. Belper took off Rush, Eric and Ant, replacing them with Massive, Dean Oliver and Stevo – all slightly odd decisions as Ant was a constant threat, Rush and Eric had also forced the Stocksbridge defence onto the backfoot on many occasions. Steels substitutions saw them throw on attackers as they knew they needed a win. Leigh Walker made an incredible save to deny Steels the lead and it looked even more as though Belper would take a well deserved point home with them. That is until the referee penalised Barney for what looked a soft free-kick wide on the Belper left.
One substitute swung the ball in to another and Andy Ring bundled the ball into the Belper net from close range for a devastating winner. Everyone was totally gutted but I guess it meant that we then knew what it felt to be a Retford fan at 16:55 last Saturday.
The third of three away trips and another game where a draw would be more than acceptable for Belper. Never an easy place to go to, Bracken Moor is always a welcoming ground with decent facilities and friendly people. Scribbler was convinced he knew the way to the ground as it is one of the most visited away venues for Belper. So no problem finding it then ? Except for the unforeseen diversion which meant a trip across the top of the valley with the floodlights in view above the massive steelworks below to our left. The detour turned out to be no more than a minor blip and we arrived at the top of the hill outside the ground around 7:10pm.
Saturdays game had taken it’s toll and Hobbo was out, but both Kots and Barney took their places in the starting line up. In the Steels 11 were Mark Ward and Darren Schofield, both former nailers, with Gary Marrow and Gary Ingham as manager and assistant on the touchline.
The first half was a scrappy affair with Steels dangerman Vardy hitting the post early doors. Belper scrapped for everyball and went in at the break at 0-0. Ant Wilson was his usual handful for the Steels defence although Belper never took advantage of the large centre half Brett Lovell by keeping the ball on the ground and letting Ant run at him.
The 2nd half was a similar affair although Belper had a good spell with both Ben and Eric Graves forcing the Steels keeper into flying saves. The game was looking more and more like a 0-0 score until the substitutes that were to change everything. Belper took off Rush, Eric and Ant, replacing them with Massive, Dean Oliver and Stevo – all slightly odd decisions as Ant was a constant threat, Rush and Eric had also forced the Stocksbridge defence onto the backfoot on many occasions. Steels substitutions saw them throw on attackers as they knew they needed a win. Leigh Walker made an incredible save to deny Steels the lead and it looked even more as though Belper would take a well deserved point home with them. That is until the referee penalised Barney for what looked a soft free-kick wide on the Belper left.
One substitute swung the ball in to another and Andy Ring bundled the ball into the Belper net from close range for a devastating winner. Everyone was totally gutted but I guess it meant that we then knew what it felt to be a Retford fan at 16:55 last Saturday.
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