The Opposition - History
Football in the town can be traced back to the 19th century when Pontefract Garrison competed in the West Yorkshire League.
Pontefract Borough are known to have reached the Yorkshire League in the late 1920s.
They then ceased to exist, with football in Pontefract being resurrected in 1935 by Tanshelf Gems and they soon became Pontefract United.
After the war they were joined in the town by the Collieries side and by the late 1950s both sides were playing in the West Yorkshire League.
Collieries became extinct in 1960 but bounced back a couple of years later when United merged with a local youth side and took the name on.
They enjoyed success in the West Yorkshire League and joined the Yorkshire League in 1979, winning Division Three in 1982.
The following year the Yorkshire and Midland Leagues combined to form the Northern Counties East League, of which Colls were founder members.
They were promoted in each of the first two seasons of its existence and held their position in the NCEL Premier for a decade.
They eventually suffered relegation in 1995 but bounced straight back, picking up the Wilkinson Sword Trophy the same season.
A further relegation followed in 2002 and it would be 2015 before they returned to the Premier. The 2007/08 season in particular was a disaster for the Colls who won the first game of the season but failed to pick up another victory. Only a league restructure saved them from relegation.
In 2018 they secured over 100 points to win the NCEL Prem and reach the NPL.
In their first season they finished 2nd in the East Division but lost out to Brighouse Town in the play-offs.
The last few seasons since the Covid abandoned ones have seen them finish 12th, 10th and 4th.
(Source: Pontefract Collieries website)

Manager Jimmy Williams took over in May 2024.

A journey of around 60 miles awaits the Nailers today.

The Opposition - This Season
The Colls started the season with defeat at Dunston but bounced back with wins over Heaton Stannington and Redcar Athletic (Cup).
A draw at home to Garforth was followed by victory at Ossett but they finished August with a heavy defeat away to Sheffield.
September saw the FA Trophy run come to an end at City of Liverpool and a run of four games without scoring.
However they found their feet with four successive victories before another run of defeats as they played seven games out of eight away from the Hunters Stadium.
They are currently on a run of five home games out of six but are without a win in nine matches in all competitions, leaving them in an unusually low position of 16th.

League (16th): P 22 W 6 D 6 L 10 F 31 A 37 Pts. 24
Cups: P 4 W 2 D 0 L 2 F 5 A 10

Top goalscorers: Jack Boyle (10), Bailey Thompson (4)
Most appearances: Jack Boyle & Oli Metcalfe (26 each), Harry Spratt & Elliot Walker (25 each)
Biggest victory: 3-0 vs. Heaton Stannington (13 August), Redcar Athletic (17th August) and Ossett United (26th August)
Heaviest defeat: 0-5 vs. Sheffield (31st August)
Highest home attendance: 392 vs. Garforth Town (24th August)
Average home attendance: 267 (15th/22)
Most consecutive wins: 4
Most games without a win: 9 (current)
Most consecutive defeats: 3
Most games without a defeat: 4

The Nailers
Belper started the season well, winning their first three matches before coming unstuck at Emley.
They bounced back with another couple of wins before Bromsgrove Sporting ended the FA Cup run in a replay.
An excellent performance and win at North Ferriby was followed by a home defeat to leaders Cleethorpes Town but a run of five successive wins followed.
Successive home defeats to Brighouse Town and Newton Aycliffe in the space of five days provided a setback but this once again propelled the Nailers who won five out of their next six before a poor performance at Stocksbridge.
A penalty shootout win over Glossop North End in the Derbyshire Senior Cup followed and then after no draws in the league in their first 18 games, matches with Garforth and Brighouse both finished all square.
Belper are one of the form teams in the league in recent weeks, having enjoyed comfortable wins over Heaton Stannington, Sheffield FC and Sherwood Colliery over the festive period and they were on the right end of a nailbiter at Bradford (Park Avenue) on Saturday.
Harry Draper is well clear as leading goalscorer with 22 while Curtis Burrows and Luke Rawson have seven each. Nat Crofts is on five.

Head to Head
The two sides met on many occasions in the NCEL, and the fixture has been played 35 times in total, plus one match which was abandoned.
Belper enjoyed the better of things in the 1980s, winning five out of the first six league encounters but Colls won the first overall, a NCE League Cup tie in February 1984.
Between October 1986 and September 1990, the Nailers won only one out of seven but bounced back to win three of the next four including a thrilling FA Vase Preliminary Round tie which finished 4-3.
Pontefract then took a strangle hold of the fixture again, winning 4-1 in December 1992 and 5-1 in September 1993.
January of the following year saw Belper win 4-1, the first of a run where they won six out of seven, with the other a draw in August 1994.
The sides didn't meet from March 1997 until October 2018 when goals from Robson, Peterson and Milner saw Belper come out on top 3-2.
The Colls had been on a three match winning streak - 4-2 in January 2019 and 3-1 & 3-0 last season - before the Nailers won 3-0 at the Raygar Stadium back in November.
Overall record for Belper: P 35 W 17 D 5 L 13 (+ 1 abandoned) F 60 A 56.
(3 x NCE League Cup, 2 x Presidents Cup, 1 x FA Vase, 24 x NCEL, 5 x NPL)

Form Guide (all comps)
Pontefract Collieries: DLLLDL
Belper Town: DDWWWW

Team News
Harry Draper serves the second and final match of his suspension.

Permutations
Victory for Ossett United on Friday night would send them above Pontefract.
For Belper only victory is guaranteed to retain top spot with a two point advantage but fairly significant goal difference disadvantage to Cleethorpes.
The hosts have several teams waiting to pounce should points be dropped but all of them are well short on goal difference and Pontefract's is also better than Sherwood who are one point above them so if they better the result of the Nottinghamshire side they will move up a place.

Match details
Pontefract Collieries vs. Belper Town
Northern Premier League Division One East

Saturday, 11th January 2025 - 3:00pm kick off

The Hunters Stadium
Beechnut Lane
Pontefract
WF8 4FU

Admission prices: £9 / £6 / £3.

The hosts ask fans to park at the raised section of the car park and to then walk down to the ground, leaving plenty of space for players, staff, committee members and those with disabled parking needs.

A full Matchday Guide for visitors can be found Here.

Follow the match
Full coverage of the match:

Audio commentary with Tom on Radio Belper Town
Full text coverage on X, Facebook and Bluesky
Match reports on the website (all matches) and in the Non-League Paper (Saturday matches only)

NPL East Fixtures
Two fixtures have been moved to Friday evening including a huge match at the bottom as Ossett look to keep themselves above the dreaded line when they entertain Bridlington.

Friday
(8th) Bradford (Park Avenue) P-P Garforth Town (9th)
(18th) Ossett United P-P Bridlington Town (21st)
Saturday
(17th) Ashington AFC P-P Newton Aycliffe (5th)
(12th) Bishop Auckland P-P Sherwood Colliery (15th)
(20th) Brighouse Town P-P Heaton Stannington (19th)
(2nd) Cleethorpes Town vs. Consett AFC (13th)
(14th) Liversedge P-P Carlton Town (10th)
(7th) North Ferriby vs. Emley AFC (3rd)
(16th) Pontefract Collieries P-P Belper Town (1st)
(22nd) Sheffield P-P Dunston (4th)
(6th) Stocksbridge Park Steels P-P Grimsby Borough (11th)