Belper Town 3-0 Steels

Stocksbridge Park Steels suffered a blow in their push for promotion after losing 3-0 to Belper Town.

It all went wrong after just two minutes. Stocksbridge had looked shaky at the back and the Nailers were able to take advantage. Kevin Bastos broke free, played the ball to Jaanai Gordon who then went one-on-one with Ben Townsend. Gordon won the duel, and Belper were ahead.

After a few minutes, the Steels were able to settle into the game and were able to make chances themselves. These came from set pieces where Stocksbridge conspired to miss from close range. Luke Rawson’s connection from a corner was not clean enough and it went wide, while Paul Iggulden got underneath a header which then went over.

However right as the half ended, Belper hit with another hammer blow. Bastos was causing more problems and got into the box on the right and whipped the ball in. It fell to Andrew Buah whose powerful shot left Townsend with no chance.

Stocksbridge came out of the gates hot in the second half, really pushing to quickly get back into the game. However the chances ending up falling to full-backs. Tom Charlesworth headed over a brilliant cross from Tinker, while the left-back blared over from a pull-back pass.

However, Belper were able to kill the game off. With the Steels committing many men forward, they caught out at the back and the Nailers took advantage. They broke free and this time Bastos, who had often been the creator, was able to get on the score sheet himself.

Stocksbridge did try and get forward in order to reduce the goal difference, but this left them more open. Bastos could have doubled his tally when he got round Townsend but he conspired to hit the shot wide. In the end, it was a disappointing defeat for Stocksbridge.