Belper Town 0-0 Steels

Stocksbridge Park Steels did everything but score in a 0-0 draw with promotion chasing Belper Town.

It was all action from the very beginning of the game. The Steels were onto the Belper defence from the beginning, and were very unlucky not to be ahead. Luke Rawson had a smart finish ruled out for offside, though there were question marks if this was the correct decision. Rawson turned creator when he played a ball across the goalkeeper for Ross Goodwin who was stopped by a sliding defender on the line. It was Belper defenders on the line again when the blocked a flick on from Rawson from making it’s way in.

Belper had their chances at the other end of the pitch as well. A good ball was played into the box and former Steel Brodie Litchfield ghosted in but his effort smashed off the bar. Litchfield was looking to get a goal against his former club and he would force an impressive save from the returning Ben Townsend.

A big moment would come towards the end of the first half. A long ball forward saw Jack Tinker and Kevin Bastos coming together, with the former ending up wrestling the Belper forward to the ground. However, when on the ground together, Bastos lashed out and kicked Tinker in the face. This gave the referee no option but to show the league’s top scorer a red card.

In the second half, Stocksbridge pressed forward as they looked to get a winner. Belper did reorganise their side by bringing another former Steel on, Ben Rhodes, and that did well at keeping the South Yorkshire side at bay. Goodwin had another big chance with a curled effort inside of the box, but this time Daniel Moore made a brilliant save to keep his clean sheet in tact.

In the end, the Steels couldn’t break through the Belper defence and it would remain goalless.