Dolly Blues denied vital win by late equaliser

The Dolly Blues looked to have secured all three points – their first league victory since the end of August – when they took an early lead through Brad Carroll against Belper Town.

Despite dominating the rest of the half, City could not find the second and nerves began to jangle after the break.

Belper – who began the match in the NPL Premier Division relegation zone alongside the Dolly Blues – snatched a point in the 90th minute thanks to James Carvell.

The game was only two minutes old when the two Brads combined at a set piece.

Brad Hubbold curled a corner away to the edge of the six-yard box where his namesake Carroll neatly flicked the ball home.

City were looking for the channels regularly, Dom Lawson and Nico Evangelinos elected as the duo to stretch the visitors’ defence.

Dale Whitham fired an attempt which looked bound for the goal before it took a slight deflection, potentially off the arm of a retreating defender and agonisingly bounced off the post.

Despite further pressure from the hosts, City were limited to a number of long-range attempts from Kyle Brownhill, Henri Ogunby and Evangelinos.

Belper had a period of dominance where top scorer Brodie Litchfield could not connect with a corner that deflected all the way through the box, while Jamie Mellen was later called into action to block Tom Wilson’s goal-bound shot.

With only one goal in the game, Belper remained in the hunt but substitute Enock Likoy almost created the second goal when he easily beat his man but could not find Evangelinos in the box.

Moments later, he fired straight at the palms of Moore after half anticipating the offside flag.

Belper mounted a threatening attack late in the game and struck gold. One cross towards the back post was nodded goalwards and cleared off the line before the ball was recycled and swung in towards the same area. The City keeper and defenders were all caught underneath it as Carvell rose at the back post and converted this time.