Below The Line !!!

We moved in to February still confident that our precarious league position would be improving and that the forthcoming fixtures weren’t too much to be concerned about. We knew that this month was important to get the ball rolling again and to that we needed to end our baron run of poor results. With still over fifteen fixtures remaining the situation wasn’t critical and that if we could pick up some useful points in the forthcoming weeks that our outlook would be clearer. It was important that the results started coming and that our climb up the league would give us some breathing space as our survival at this level of football is paramount. Unfortunately again we were unable to improve our position and the opposite of what we were hoping for happened.

Tadcaster Albion 0-2 Carlton Tn

Our first fixture of the month would take us on an away day to the club that for most of the season had been sitting at the bottom of the league. Within twenty minutes we had taken a foothold on the game when the returning Aaron O’Connor would find the net and take us into half-time with a lead and a competent first-half behind us. We would enter the second phase confident that the game was ours for the taking and a further twenty minutes in O’Connor would net again and send us back home with all the points and a sense of relief.

With the previous result behind us and the thoughts that our poor run of results was behind us we went into this one with a lot of hope that our blip was now over. Within ten minutes the visitors opened the scoring after The Millers had started brightly. There were no further goals in the first half as both sides stuck to their tasks very securely. Another goal four minutes into the second half would see the visitors further increase their lead and take a foothold in the game. Boyle for the visitors would add a third ten minutes later and The Millers woes would flare up again as the score line was now too wide to recover. We still took the game to the visitors and still kept plugging away and would be rewarded a further ten minutes on when Bradley Wells would pull one back. This opened up a spell in the game where both teams would throw everything at it and the visitors would be the first team to prevail. They would take a four-one lead before Niall Davie would reduce the arrears five minutes from time and bring an end to the proceedings where The Millers had never been in control of the outcome.

Carlton

tn 2-4 Bridlington

We had previously met the day’s opposition earliar in the season on the coast and knew that we would have a tough game ahead of us. Our opposition opened the scoring just before the halfway mark in the first half and took this lead into the break. The next goal would arrive just after the break and again it was the visitors who would find the net. This opened up a spell of football which would see four goals in a twenty minute spell as the game now became a real end to end affair. Bridlington would score twice more with a Bradley Wells finish sandwiched in-between. Tyler Blake would reduce the arrears another eight minutes later with a strike from distance in a game where The Millers would always be chasing the score line.

Sheffield

A trip up the road to Dronfield next and a chance for us to pick up some useful points against a side that we had always in the past managed to get good results against. This one is always a favourite amongst the Carlton fans and the team were certainly going to try to not disappoint. The home side started spritely but The Millers remained and stood firm and with just under the half-way mark of the first period approaching would find a potential game changer occur. The Sheffield goalkeeper would find himself in no-man’s land as a through ball for O’Connor left him one on one, the ball would take a high bounce and leave the keeper no option but to handle it midway in his own half. Away to the dressing rooms he would go and leave his side a player short, here was our opportunity we thought. However, the home side stood firm for the remainder of the game and even without a recognised keeper between the posts The Millers would still struggle to find the net as the replacement net-minder would make two or three great saves to deny us.

Carlton Town 0-2 Hebburn Having only picked up four points from a possible twelve, we now faced a side that were currently sitting third in the division. Our boys were put on the back foot early on as the opposition played with a lot of energy and confidence. It would take until the half hour mark before the deadlock was broken and it would be the visitors that would open the scoring. The score line remained the same until half-time and despite being behind we still knew we had a chance to resurrect the situation. We addressed the second half as we always do by trying to move the ball freely, but each time we tried the opposition would find away to stop us. It wasn’t until another twenty minutes into the second period that we would see another goal, and again it was the visitors that would add to the score-sheet.

Our opponents on the day moved the ball better than we did and worked as hard off the ball as any team we have met all season and in the end deserved their victory. We now enter what surely must be the most critical month in the club’s history. As we now sit below the line of safety by a good seven points our results have to improve immediately. The situation going into the final ten games now means that we need to do something that we haven’t done all season, and that is go on a winning run and hope that most weeks the results will go for us also. A very big ask from everyone at the club is now required to ensure that our status in this code of football remains and the reality of the fact is that we need to roll our sleeves up even further to ensure our survival. The club is bigger than any one single individ- ual and we must keep this in mind when we go about our tasks on and off the field. Forthcoming Fixtures: