Battling Melton Town overcome red-card to beat Belper United

Belper started the brighter side and it took only five minutes before the first chance fell to Kieran O’Connell who had a crack from the edge of the area, which Bill Harrison saved easily.

They nearly took the lead from a corner which fell to Jack Tyson, free at the back post, which needed Harrison to be alert again to touch the ball around the upright.

Town started to dominate possession and their first chance came in the 17th minute after a Paul Anderson weaving run from the halfway line ended with a rasping low shot that the keeper spilled only for Kairo Edwards-John to be given offside after collecting the rebound. Pat Fini had a go from distance that had Curtis Hall scrambling to prevent a goal.

Hall was in action again when a Toby Fura corner was flicked on by Tom Manship and nodded towards goal by Sam Beaver only for the keeper to finger-tip the ball over the bar.

The second half saw Melton enjoy a majority of the ball and the deadlock was broken in the 50th minute when debutant Kairo Edwards-John had a shot deflected to Anderson, he ran across the edge of the area before feeding a pass to Jorrin John, whose low shot was deflected past the keeper.

Then, on the hour mark, Tyson went clear of the defence and Harrison brought the player down for a free-kick and, as he was the last man, was shown the red card. Melton were now down to 10 men for the second game in a row.

After 10 minutes of stout defending, the lead was doubled. An Anderson freekick was flicked onto Mason Lee who was crudely tripped in the box.

Lee took the penalty himself, sending the keeper the wrong way. Belper then heaped the pressure on the 10 men. Martin Smyth had a half volley cleared off the line. And, with two minutes to go the same player had a shot from the edge of the box which substitute keeper Ben Newton saved well.

Belper got themselves a consolation goal deep into injury time when Emilio De Abreu slotted in from three yards out.