Leek Town 2-1 Belper Town
LEEK Town battled to an excellent victory over second- placed Belper Town at Harrison Park on Saturday to maintain their unbeaten home league record and dent the Nailers' hopes of catching league leaders Mickleover Sports.
Leek made a good start to the match and took the lead after just 16 minutes through Paul Rutter, but then came under increasing pressure as the game wore on.
Both sides missed great chances but Blues substitute Leon Ashman, who scored an injury-time equaliser in the away fixture, slotted home in added time.
Despite the league’s leading goalscorer Lee Stevenson ramming home a free-kick just a minute later, Wayne Johnson’s men held on to record an excellent win.
The Blues suffered two injury setbacks during the second-half though when first club captain Andy Taylor and then Rob Hawthorne were forced out of the match.
Leek were able to name the exact same squad that recorded a 2-0 win at Loughborough Dynamo in their last fixture before the weather intervened to disrupt the season again.
The game started brightly and Dan Cope caused the visitors problems early on, and when Nick Ward slid the ball through to the young striker, Belper goalkeeper Adam Ogden was forced to come out off his line to snuff out the threat.
On five minutes, Cope sent a looping header goalwards but Ogden was well placed to gather.
The Nailers mounted their first attack three minutes later when Jon Froggatt played the ball across to leading scorer Lee Stevenson, but he fired wide of goal.
Froggatt broke forward again on 11 minutes to cross into the penalty area, but this time Dean Oliver headed wide as the visitors began putting pressure on Leek.
However, just two minutes later Matty Johnson’s deep cross from the right found Paul Rutter in space outside the Belper box, but he lifted a hurried shot over the crossbar.
On 14 minutes, Paul Taylor’s freekick found Wayne Corden, but his angled drive through a crowded goalmouth was well taken.
Leek were on the attack again on 16 minutes and after Hawthorne was hacked down from behind, the referee played the advantage as Matty Johnson continued the attack and when his cross into the box took a deflection to wrong foot Belper, and Rutter capitalised to notch his sixth goal in eight appearances.
Leek tried to build on that lead quickly, but first Dan Cope sent a diving header from a Matty Johnson corner over the bar and then Paul Taylor’s free-kick curled over as well.
Leek had another chance to increase their lead on 24 minutes when Matty Johnson again swung the ball into Rutter, only for his diving header to also clear the crossbar.
After that, the Nailers really began to apply increasing pressure onto the Blues backline.
Stevenson shot straight at Steve Hodgson in the Leek goal from a good position four minutes later before Belper missed three great scoring opportunities.
First Stevenson crossed the ball to Froggatt in the 40th minute but he headed wide from right in front of goal.
An even more glaring miss came one minute later though when Stevenson linked up well with Oliver Ryan to again put Froggatt through on goal, but Hodgson closed him down to make a great save.
Leek regained the upper hand as the second period got under way and in the third minute Hawthorne played the ball into the path of Nick Ward, but he lifted his shot over.
On nine minutes, Leek’s Cope could have done better when he met a superb cross from Corden right in front of the goal, but with just Ogden to beat he fired wide.
Blues suffered a serious blow a minute later when Taylor suffered a nasty looking injury.
After lengthy treatment, Taylor tried to continue but when he collapsed to the floor it was clear his afternoon was over.
The Blues suffered a second blow when Hawthorne was, not for the first time in the game, the victim of a rash challenge and he was replaced by Leek’s final substitution Dean Crowe.
The game took a dramatic turn as it entered into four minutes of stoppage time.
First Matty Johnson pushed the ball across to Ashman a minute into added time and he did well to hold off a challenge and slot the ball into the bottom corner of the net to register his 10th of the campaign.
The Nailers finally got the goal they had been threatening when Stevenson bagged his 28th goal of the season with a well taken freekick just a minute later.
LEEK: Hodgson, P Johnson, P Taylor, A Taylor (Bailey), Ruddock, Hawthorne (Crowe), M Johnson, Ward, Rutter, Cope (Ashman), Corden; subs not used: Macari, W Johnson.
ATTENDANCE: 315.