The Carlton Train Is Rolling !!!

We entered July looking at a very congested fixture pile-up for our pre-season agenda knowing that the new campaign will be as tough as the last one. Having lost quite a few players at the end of last season we knew that our squad would be needing a face-lift and fresher legs for the opposition that we will be facing during the next ten months.

Our first gathering as a group would be for a trialist fixture at the back of June where we would be graced with over twenty players all wanting to chance their arms with a step four club in a fixture against Sandiacre Town. A resounding win on the day where we had the luxury of being able to field two different sides in each half enabled us to assess our options as we saw quite a few interesting personnel. The second of our fixtures saw us take the short trip across to Basford United where we would again play opposition that themselves were restructuring their team. Our performance on the day was very encouraging as we were facing our local rivals whom themselves had many a trialist amongst their ranks also. Our boys acquitted themselves very well and all of those that were on trial in our mixture of experience and fresh faces showed a lot of character on the day as the game would end in a goal-less scoreline. Three days on from the great effort against Basford we hosted Lincoln United in another fixture. Lincoln unfortunately last season didn’t escape the drop from our Division and at one stage near the end of the epic few weeks that we had were looking like they would survive at our expense. With former goalkeeper Jack Steggles between the posts, they were unable to match the ability and tenacity of our approach play and on the night would succumb to a two-one defeat in what was again a very promising performance from a group of players that were still playing for their squad places. Next on the agenda at Stoke Lane was the now annual fixture against Merthyr Town. This was the one that I was looking forward to the most as my distant Uncle, William Jennings, was the first Club Captain for Merthyr Town when they turned professional in Nineteen Twenty. On a glorious day at Stoke Lane we welcomed our friends from the Southern League and South Wales as both sides were still looking to formulate our squads with many a trialist still on show. Both sides contributed to an entertaining fixture on the day and again The Millers would prevail over The Martyrs in a four-nil scoreline as our momentum continued to increase it’s velocity.

Another three days on and another short trip across to Hucknall Town was on the cards. This was our first visit to their new stadium which has only been operational since December last year. Again the setting was good and our preparation was excellent as we strove to reduce the numbers for our squad. The competition for places so far this summer has been of a very high standard and as our summer fixtures are running down here was another chance for some of the fringe contenders to put a spanner in the works. Another excellent performance on the night in a two-nil victory against our hosts didn’t ease our selection problems by much but it did keep our train rolling.

Clifton All-Whites were next in the ‘Mickey Barrett Trophy’ at Clifton. This was the follow-on fixture from last season where Carlton were the trophy holders. Again, our boys acquitted themselves well and a resounding result as well as a comfortable performance saw us worthy winners on a dull and wet day. So, we entered the final Saturday of the month and our final pre-season fixture against Shepshed Dynamo whom we were hoping would be our stiffest test before the squad would be finalised. Looking to keep our one hundred percent summer record intact we went about our business as usual. Despite our friends from down the road in Leicestershire taking the early initiative and bringing the game to us early on our boys were never really struggling. Shepshed gave us a good work-out on the day and our only blip at the end of the game was to concede from a set piece with the very last kick as we prevailed in a three-one scoreline.

Now our summer is concluded and the battles are about to commence for the big stakes. Our first competitive fixture is looming in the F.A.Cup at Quorn on Saturday 5th August which will be followed by the first league fixture away at Pontefract on the following Saturday. The fixtures over the past few weeks have proved to be very fruitful and our hopes for the forthcoming season are very hopeful that we will be fighting at the top end of the table.

Watch This Space !!!!