Grantham Town beaten by Belper Town in the Northern Premier League East Division
Early goals in each half set the tone for a heavy 5-0 away defeat for the Gingerbreads at Belper Town on Saturday.
The defeat leaves Grantham ending 2023 four points from safety in the Northern Premier League East Division having played a couple of games more than their closest rivals.
However, recently-appointed head coach Louis Bland saw reasons to be positive about the second half of the season, writes Graham Cowell.
He said: "There were periods when we were the better side against a top of the table team.
"But they took their chances and we didn't. In the end, that was the difference between the two sides."
It only took Belper two minutes to start to make the difference.
Former Gingerbread Kevin Bastos delivered a fine cross for Brodie Litchfield and the Belper midfielder made no mistake to give his side an early lead.
Grantham fought back and troubled the home defence with their pace but could not create a clear shooting chance.
After a quarter of an hour, Curtis Morrison played in Harry Olivant who delivered a good cross, but it flew just in front of Tiago Nassunculo.
The home side won a lot of loose balls in midfield and began to put Grantham under pressure.
Belper had chances to add to their lead and, midway through the first half, Sidik Atcha flicked on at the near post but Ben Rhodes missed the chance to double the lead.
A few minutes later Olivant almost capitalised on a Grantham break. His shot was half blocked and ended up with no power to trouble Belper goalkeeper Dan Moore.
The game burst into life around the half hour mark.
Declan Dunn got away from the Gingerbreads defence, but a good covering tackle from Kris Zaluzinskis denied the Belper midfielder.
Olivant then had another good chance but was denied by a good save from Moore.
It often seemed as Grantham attacked that they were outnumbered by three forwards to six defenders making the home side's job of defending their lead comfortable.
Five minutes before half-time Belper got a second goal.
Curtis Burrows broke down the Grantham right and won a corner. A deep delivery found Danny South rising highest at the far post to double the home side's lead.
It got worse for Grantham just before half-time as Zac Goodson added a third Belper goal on the stroke of the break.
Burrows once again delivered the cross and, as Grantham struggled to contain the threat from South and Goodson, Goodson fired the home side into a three-goal half-time lead.
Another early goal for Belper shortly after the break put paid to any realistic hopes Grantham had of getting back into the game.
A goal three minutes into the second half came when Bastos won the ball for Belper and ran at the Grantham defence. His cross was perfect for South to score his second of the game and make it 4-0 to the hosts.
Belper could take it easy from that point on, but still had chances to add to the lead.
Litchfield beat the Grantham defence easily on 61 minutes, but Curtis Hall saved well at the expense of a corner.
While Belper looked dangerous, Grantham offered little threat and could have found themselves five goals down after 67 minutes.
South was pulled down inside the penalty area, but refused the chance of a hat-trick, allowing Mason Warren to take the spot kick. Hall saved his spot kick and Goodson missed the follow-up.
Warren made no mistake from the penalty spot eight minutes later though.
A second penalty for the home side was comfortably put away to seal an emphatic victory for the Nailers.
Belper saw the remaining minutes out with no real threat of a consolation goal for Grantham.
Litchfield offered a late threat of another Belper goal but, after a mazy run, his shot was blocked by the Gingerbreads back line.