diff --git a/Unix/cloc b/Unix/cloc
index 2c124400..385aec8c 100755
--- a/Unix/cloc
+++ b/Unix/cloc
@@ -5833,19 +5833,30 @@ sub make_file_list {                         # {{{1
             next;
         }
         if ($opt_no_recurse) {
+            my @candidate_file_list = ();
             if ($ON_WINDOWS and $HAVE_Win32_Long_Path) {
                 my $d = Win32::LongPath->new();
                 $d->opendirL($dir);
                 foreach my $entry ($d->readdirL()) {
                     my $F = "$dir/$entry";
-                    push @file_list, $F if is_file($F);
+                    push @candidate_file_list, $F if is_file($F);
                 }
                 $d->closedirL();
             } else {
                 opendir(DIR, $dir);
-                push @file_list, grep(is_file($_), readdir(DIR));
+                push @candidate_file_list, grep(is_file("$dir/$_"), readdir(DIR));
                 closedir(DIR);
             }
+            foreach my $F (@candidate_file_list) {
+                # pretend to be File::Find's wanted() routine, namely subroutine files(),
+                # to apply all file filter rules
+                $File::Find::dir  = $dir;
+                $File::Find::name = $F;
+                $_ = "$dir/$F";
+                files();  # side effect:  populates @file_list
+            }
+            # ... then prepend the directory name to each file
+            @file_list = map { "$dir/$_" } @file_list;
         } else {
             find({wanted     => \&files            ,
                   preprocess => \&find_preprocessor,
diff --git a/Unix/t/01_opts.t b/Unix/t/01_opts.t
index 44950b9d..1b668abe 100755
--- a/Unix/t/01_opts.t
+++ b/Unix/t/01_opts.t
@@ -858,6 +858,13 @@ my @Tests = (
                    'ref'  => '../tests/outputs/issues/833/results.yaml',
                 },
 
+                {
+                   'name' => '--match-f with --no-recurse (github issue #851)',
+                   'cd'   => '../tests/inputs/issues/851',
+                   'args' => "--match-f '.lua\$' --no-recurse level_1",
+                   'ref'  => '../tests/outputs/issues/851/results.yaml',
+                },
+
             );
 
 # Special cases:
diff --git a/cloc b/cloc
index 5304b4e3..19ae467f 100755
--- a/cloc
+++ b/cloc
@@ -5848,19 +5848,30 @@ sub make_file_list {                         # {{{1
             next;
         }
         if ($opt_no_recurse) {
+            my @candidate_file_list = ();
             if ($ON_WINDOWS and $HAVE_Win32_Long_Path) {
                 my $d = Win32::LongPath->new();
                 $d->opendirL($dir);
                 foreach my $entry ($d->readdirL()) {
                     my $F = "$dir/$entry";
-                    push @file_list, $F if is_file($F);
+                    push @candidate_file_list, $F if is_file($F);
                 }
                 $d->closedirL();
             } else {
                 opendir(DIR, $dir);
-                push @file_list, grep(is_file($_), readdir(DIR));
+                push @candidate_file_list, grep(is_file("$dir/$_"), readdir(DIR));
                 closedir(DIR);
             }
+            foreach my $F (@candidate_file_list) {
+                # pretend to be File::Find's wanted() routine, namely subroutine files(),
+                # to apply all file filter rules
+                $File::Find::dir  = $dir;
+                $File::Find::name = $F;
+                $_ = "$dir/$F";
+                files();  # side effect:  populates @file_list
+            }
+            # ... then prepend the directory name to each file
+            @file_list = map { "$dir/$_" } @file_list;
         } else {
             find({wanted     => \&files            ,
                   preprocess => \&find_preprocessor,
diff --git a/tests/inputs/issues/851/level_1/flatbuffers.fbs b/tests/inputs/issues/851/level_1/flatbuffers.fbs
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d6f509d8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/inputs/issues/851/level_1/flatbuffers.fbs
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+
+/* Comment 1 */
+table TestTable {
+	// Comment 2
+  Item: int32;
+}
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/inputs/issues/851/level_1/hello.lua b/tests/inputs/issues/851/level_1/hello.lua
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..eaa1bab8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/inputs/issues/851/level_1/hello.lua
@@ -0,0 +1,14 @@
+-- single line comment
+
+--[[
+multi 
+line 
+comment
+]]
+
+--[[
+also a comment
+--]]
+
+print("hello, world")
+print([[not a comment]])
diff --git a/tests/inputs/issues/851/level_1/level_2/hello_2.lua b/tests/inputs/issues/851/level_1/level_2/hello_2.lua
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..63db07d1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/inputs/issues/851/level_1/level_2/hello_2.lua
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+-- another instance
+-- single line comment
+
+--[[
+multi 
+line 
+comment
+]]
+
+--[[
+also a comment
+--]]
+
+print("hello 2, world")
+print([[not a comment]])
diff --git a/tests/outputs/issues/851/results.yaml b/tests/outputs/issues/851/results.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..82c2c01b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/outputs/issues/851/results.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+---
+# github.com/AlDanial/cloc
+header : 
+  cloc_url           : github.com/AlDanial/cloc
+  cloc_version       : 2.02
+  elapsed_seconds    : 0.00290799140930176
+  n_files            : 1
+  n_lines            : 14
+  files_per_second   : 343.879970484545
+  lines_per_second   : 4814.31958678364
+  report_file        : /home/al/git-cloc/tests/outputs/issues/851/results.yaml
+'Lua' :
+  nFiles: 1
+  blank: 3
+  comment: 9
+  code: 2
+SUM: 
+  blank: 3
+  comment: 9
+  code: 2
+  nFiles: 1