Nailers target maximum return

Belper Town manager Peter Duffield is planning to send a full stength side out against Ossett Town in Tuesday’s Doodson Cup tie to help his players recover their sharpness and reach the next round after ten days without a game, writes Nigel Oldrini.

Duffield was disappointed on Saturday to see a second successive fixture postponed after the Nailers’ Evo-Stik NPL First Division South clash at league leaders Coalville Town was called off, the postponment coming five days after the original Doodson tie against Ossett Town was put back for the same reason.

Victory will sell up a trip to Carlton Town in the next round and Duffield, pictured, said: "I will be taking a stronger squad on Tuesday than I would have done because the players need a game, and expect all the first team squad to be involved at Ossett.

"I’m anticipating a difficult game because they have strengthened their squad over the last few seasons and will represent a tough task, but I'm keen to win the game and set up a tie against Carlton Town."

Newly-signed defenders Chris Jones, formerly of Derby County, and Rory Coleman, recruited from Hinckley United, are set to feature along with Eric Graves who rejoined his hometown club from Mickleover Sports on Friday.

Duffield is unhappy that Saturday's Coalville clash hadn't been called off earlier. "We didn’t get told about it until just before midday by which time we were on our way down to Belper, with some lads having left work early," he said. "Surely the game could have been called off early if the pitch was that bad, saving us the time and travel."

Belper’s own ground is struggling after the bad weather of recent weeks and the Nailers manager thanked Derby County for helping to keep his players in shape after revealing they’d allowed him to train his squad at their state-of-the-art Moor Farm training ground last week.

He added: "We are really grateful to Derby County for the use of their training facilities because there was no way we could get on our pitch on Thursday and to have those Moor Farm at our disposal is fantastic and I can’t thank them enough."

The Nailers start their festive programme with a home game against Market Drayton Town on Saturday before making the journey to Dronfield to take on Sheffield FC on Boxing Day. They travel to Leek Town on Saturday 29 December and on New Year’s Day face Mickleover Sports in a derby clash at Christchurch Meadow.