Belper Town vs Witton Albion.

First Team On the Park
21

CJ agree. And we have some tough games coming up, Kettering, Glossop, Shaw Lane, Leek etc etc I would like to see Carl playing some of the lads who don’t get regular first team game time on Wednesday against Sandbach.

pestered, I get what you’re saying but by all accounts they were poor and we were poorer yesterday. We can’t afford to drop points to teams like these.

The end of season will go to the wire IMHO and we need to play as if every game is the FA cup final. We need to be switched on for the whole game and Carl needs to sort out the corner situation, we’re easy pickings for conceding goals from corners

Don’t want to be critical but there are a couple of players who aren’t good enough and we need to start looking at what else is available if we’re going to get promoted

22

The injury to Anthony Brown was a big blow, he was forming a good partnership with Michael Wilson and since his injury, the solidity doesn’t appear to have been there in the same way… Ryan Hickman and Wes Benjamin try to do their best and when Gards is switched into the middle, we lose one of our main attacking threats. Still looking good and two defeats in a dozen league games is good going. Once Brown comes back hopefully, things should be tighter again but he has been a big miss.

23

Money from FA trophy run is vital if we want to keep the squad we have or add to it but that means playing more games!!
WHS.

24

WHS not sure what your point is

25

from Belper…

Evan Garnett’s explosive debut helped his side gain their second home win of the season as the Nailers claimed to ninth in the table.

Belper went into the game in a spell of good form, with them being unbeaten in their last four games, three of which were wins.

However, the Nailers were seemingly facing some of the toughest opposition in the league, with Witton sitting in fourth place with three games in hand over all the teams around them.

Belper started extremely positively as they moved the ball around with great precision, but struggling to break through the Witton defence in the early minutes.

New signing Evan Garnett, who rejoined the club from Alfreton Town after leaving the Nailers last season to join Kidderminster Harriers, looked particularly impressive, with a superb first touch and blistering pace that gave Wittons full backs no end of trouble.

The Nailers managed to break through the Witton defence through an excellently delivered cross by Jonathan Williams, he picked John Guy out in the box superbly before Guy powered home his header into the Witton goal.

This lead was doubled just eight minutes later as Garnett opened his tally for Belper this season. An excellent first touch from Garnett off of a long ball forward bamboozled the Witton defenders, the striker then coolly slotted his shot under the keeper to announce his arrival in the loudest way possible.

In the second half, Witton looked much more capable of getting a goal, with them keeping possession much better and attacking at will, however some superb defending from the likes of John Guy and Ben Watkis prevented Witton creating any real clear cut chances.

However, Witton did come extremely close to pulling one back midway through the second half, Robert Hopley rounded Danny Haystead in the Belper goal for what looked like a certain goal, but a piece of sheer bravery from Michael Armstrong saw the forwards shot cleared off the line.

It was apparent that Alex Steadman had put the final nail in the coffin as he got the third goal for the Nailers, an incredible through ball from Williams put Steadman through one on one with the keeper, Steadman buried the chance to give his side an unassailable lead.

Steadman’s glory was momentarily halted as he seemingly fouled a Witton attacker in his own penalty area, forcing the referee to award a penalty.

Paul Williams converted the penalty to give Witton a consolation, but this simply couldn’t ruin the mood on what was an electrifying night for the Nailers.

26

Just that it is “Sod’ s law.”, we need the money from fixtures and prize money but that puts pressure on the squad of players so we have to spend the money on new players just to stand still unless we go a long way in the FA Trophy. But if we concentrate just on the league we may still have injuries but no cash for new players.
WHS.

27

I think what WHS is saying is that we need to progress as far as we can in the trophy as the money that it will bring in is crucial to the club. I don’t think anyone would disagree with that but just as importantly (for me anyway) is we need to get out of this league, the travelling costs for the club and fans to away games are not doing us any favours and we must focus on this just as much. If I’m not wrong we’ve played on two artificial pitches already this season and Belper on Saturday was akin to the facilities at moss farm. We must also try our best to get out of this league asap, Carl has this under control I’m sure. UTA

28

Definitely

We do need money in the pot but imho first and foremost we need to get out of this league. Belper have only won once at home before they played us. It’s teams like this that we can’t afford to lose against.

My thoughts are that We need Gards back in position asap, we need another midfielder, what is happening with Wes? And we need to work on defending corners. This needs to be done now before rhe lads start getting nackered and injured

29

What we need is more money! Carl and the Board can only work with what they have, be it players or money. Another win in the FA Trophy or a cup tie against 1874 would give us a boost moneywise. I agree though that getting out of this league has,to be the main priority.
WHS.

30

It really is a shame we’ve suffered from lack of funds for a while now and the FA Trophy is one way of getting some. At this time we are doing a whole lot better on the field than I thought we’d do during the summer when we did’nt know about signings or players coming in. Its obvious though that Carl and Co prefer to beaver away in the background and then only announce signings once its definately sorted. I’m sure they are working on this now but the club needs to support them on this. I’m confident that our soccer management team could get us out of this league given the support and I hope come February when we are hopefully in the top 3 that our board will support them if they need a couple of players just to see us over the line. Complacency is the thing that we need to be careful of both on the terrances and in the dressing room.
I think you have to put the Belper game down as a blip. They’ve obviously just started a run with several decent signings so the fact their home record is not good is masking their recent improvement. Couple that with the fact we must have been absolutely tired out after the colwyn bay game and missing Anthony Brown and Benjamin and Reeves did’nt help. Hopefully we’ll have a full squad to choose from Saturday against Kettering. One further comment having been to Belper on Saturday the referee and linesmen were a complete joke. How the hell can you book ten playeers in what was not a dirty game at all? Complete joke I know it did’nt affect the result but officials like this can affect us when people get banned for totally needless bookings!!