Northern Premier League Midland Division Saturday 23 August 2025

The final score was a reflection of a game where the Mikes made few chances, and indeed only had four attempts at goal. The game began in end-to-end fashion, Charlie Manners skying two early opportunities, the only indication of a home win being the number of fouls the visitors were conceding. Our hosts had produced three “Ooohs”, for close encounters of the just missing kind, before they took the lead on twenty-seven minutes. The ball fell fortunately to James Tague, who made no mistake from eight yards out. Tague and Jacob Gratton giving the Mikes’ right rearguard an interesting afternoon, the Nailers evoked three more “ooohs” before doubling their lead six minutes from the break. Veteran full back Louis Keenan half won three challenges at the back, and suddenly Kevin Bastos was away down the left wing. Running on, he made the interval tally 2-0.

Boldmere brought on Red Simmons at the restart, replacing Frankie Ealing (who, as usual, had put his health and safety on the line in his team’s cause). Play recommenced on an even footing, and you wondered whether the Mikes could pull themselves back into the game. Indeed, their best chance of the afternoon came with the hour just gone, the newly arrived Alex Lock feeding Harry Wakefield – who, slightly wrong footed, screwed the ball just wide of the post. With three quarters of the match gone, Boldmere gained their first corner: nothing came of it, except that it signalled the beginning of the march of the substitutes – Boldmere hoping to conjure up something extra, Belper (as time ticked away, and victory was on the horizon) giving their squad some game time.

We had to wait until eight minutes short of the ninety before the Derbyshire men sealed their success with a third goal. Tague managed to avoid the attentions of a pair of markers, and from his goal line centre Bastos was able to score his second, despite Ashton Rinaldo getting a hand to his effort. Boldmere fought gamely on…but that it wasn’t their day was illustrated when injury was added to insult. Two minutes from standard time, some intense tackling was taking place in Boldmere’s bottom left corner, three players from each side fighting for the ball. Some flying studs were eventually waved at lower shin height…the inevitable melee resulted…and Zachary Binns (who’d been on the park just over a quarter of an hour) was sent off. It thus ended another day for the young Church Road combo to learn from…and hopefully improve results in days to come.

Belper Town: Kieran Preston; Ben Rhodes (Andrew Tsolakis 84); Louis Keenan; Jordan Fankwe (Diego Edwards 74); Jack Broadhead; Ioan Evans; Kevin Bastos (Pharrel Mensah 84); Curtis Burrows; Jonathan Wafula; Jacob Gratton (Tomasso Zerboni 84); James Tague (Kingsley Adu-Gyamfi 74).

Boldmere St Michaels: Ashton Rinaldo; Frankie Ealing (Red Simmons 45); Pierre Phillips; George Cleet; Kyle Burke; Lewis Allison (Ben George 74); Kaireice Cunningham (Zachary Binns 74); Charlie Manners (Alex Lock 60); Harry Wakefield (Osaze Okuonghae 84); Freddie Cockerell; Nathan Oyemade.