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12/5/2020 12:31 PM  #1


Carlton Town 2019-20 Season Review

CARLTON TOWN 2019-20 SEASON REVIEW   by Alan Murphy

There's clearly no more football to be played this year, so here's the season review, which was one of the more enjoyable to write!
Season 2019-20 may have been cut short by the coronavirus pandemic, but it was a year which all connected with Carlton Town won’t forget in a hurry. The FA may have decided to cancel the season and expunge the results but there’s no way the Millers will be deleting their most successful campaign for years from the records.

In an around the play offs all campaign, Carlton had moved back into fifth place in the table on the back of successive 4-0 wins when the season came to its premature conclusion. With games in hand they looked well set for a tilt at the play offs and a potential promotion to step 3. As it turned out that wasn’t to be, but there is much to be pleased about when looking back over the campaign.Carlton went into the season on the back of last year’s reprieve from relegation, with a new management team of Tommy Brookbanks and Mark Harvey at the helm. Brookbanks of course was well known at Stoke Lane, having managed the club between 1996-2010, a period which included four promotions and a play off campaign in the Northern Premier League. Harvey was a new face to most Millers fans, but he and Brookbanks had been successful together in recent years at clubs such as Coalville Town.

One of the first moves of the new management pair was to bring some familiar faces back to the club. Amongst those were Martin Ball (back as player coach) and Tom Maddison (back as club captain). Both were to play pivotal roles in the course of the season. They were joined by Daniel Fletcher, Danny Elliott and Luke Smithson as returning players, with new signings including Tyler Johal and Dan Brown joining the bulk of last season’s squad.

The club had offered discounted season tickets during the summer and saw a 300% increase in season ticket holders as a result. Those supporters were encouraged by some impressive displays in pre-season when the Brookbanks / Harvey brand of pass and move football was clear to be seen. It was obvious that the players were enjoying it as well.The opening competitive game was a disappointment with a below-par performance leading to an early FA Cup exit at Barton Town but that turned out to be a mere blip as the Millers won their opening four league fixtures to go second in the table. Key to those early successes were three clean sheets from Jack Steggles, with Ball and a revitalised Toby Moore looking rock solid at centre half with Maddison pulling the strings just in front of them. Indeed, their form led Brown, who had looked impressive in pre-season, to have to alternate at right back with Oliver Robinson for much of the season. The two of them seemed at times to spur each other on as they competed for one spot in the team.

Fletcher too excelled at left back and with Niall Davie enjoying a sparkling campaign primarily in the wide left midfield position, Johal had to be patient and wait for his place in the starting eleven.Another factor in those early successes was Maddison’s expertise from the penalty spot, with winning goals against Sutton Coldfield and Kidsgrove following the opening day success at Lincoln.

Frickley Athletic were the next to be defeated, with a Tyler Blake hattrick, one of two for the striker during the season, completing a comeback from two goals behind. Blake and his strike partner Aaron Opoku were quite simply outstanding all season. Opoku was at times unplayable and Blake showed he is one of the best finishers in the league. The fact that both kept their form for the entire campaign is another reason why the year went so well

.September brought a first defeat of the campaign at home to Worksop, but the Millers responded superbly with a thumping 3-0 win at fellow promotion contenders Stamford before another come-from-behind home win against Newcastle Town. That 3-1 success saw Carlton go top of the table for the first time in six years and they were to remain top over the next month as they recorded wins at Chasetown and Worksop as well as home draws with Sheffield and Spalding.

The win at Chasetown was one of the best performances in years with goals from Ball and Johal securing the points and it was Ball again who got the winner four minutes from time at Worksop to the joy of the large travelling support. Davie had been the provider of both of his goals and his pinpoint set pieces were another significant factor in the team’s success.

The Millers progressed through two rounds of the FA Trophy before bowing out against Matlock and the league campaign became a little disjointed due to a number of postponements caused in part by ceaseless rain and in part by the increasingly poor state of the Stoke Lane pitch. Nonetheless, hard fought draws at Glossop and Cleethorpes meant that Carlton were well placed going into December but then a heavy home defeat against Leek and a narrow loss at Belper threatened to derail the season.

The team responded with a superb display at Ilkeston, winning 4-2 with a Johal brace and a peach of a goal from Opoku amongst the delights, but the new year started with a loss against Kidsgrove and a draw against Sutton Coldfield. Oliver Clark got the equaliser against Sutton with a powerful header from another Davie corner. Clark was another player who was a key part of the season, with some dominant displays in midfield alongside Maddison and Elliott, and some key goals, including the second goal that secured the win on the opening day at Lincoln and it was clear that he was one of those benefitting from the new approach at the club.

The Millers then won an astonishing encounter 6-4 against Wisbech with a first Carlton goal in a decade for another returnee, Daryll Thomas. Thomas came back early in the season and although the form of Opoku and Blake meant that he had limited opportunities on the pitch, his enthusiasm around the club and the team was undiminished. The way he kept possession in the corner in the final minutes of the win at Worksop was an object lesson in how to run down the clock and frustrate the opposition – masterful.

The Millers followed that up with another impressive away win, this time 3-0 at Sheffield, thanks once again to a Blake brace and a Maddison penalty. The Carlton home support had increased, in part due to the season ticket sales, but one of the real bonuses of the season was the increased travelling support the Millers enjoyed. It’s not that long ago that (discounting committee members and players’ family) Carlton were taking just one or two supporters to a lot of away games. All season the away support has been excellent as the Millers fans have travelled in numbers, but none more so than at Sheffield where, boosted by a few newbies on a beano, the Carlton support topped 50 – surely a club record for a non-Cup Final.

The month ended with hard fought win against Bingham in the Notts Senior Cup but that was followed up by a late defeat against Loughborough. The Davie-Ball combination saw Carlton complete a quick-fire double over Wisbech, albeit a serious injury to Maddison ended his campaign. In his stead as penalty taker, it was Opoku who scored the late equaliser in the Senior Cup against Gedling Miners Welfare in a tie which the Millers eventually won on penalties.

With fixtures backing up due to repeated postponements Carlton did get a couple of games played in early March, drawing with Chasetown and losing unfortunately at Leek. But then Opoku smashed a hattrick as Carlton beat Market Drayton 4-0 before Blake repeated the feat four days later as the Millers recorded the same score against Glossop. That win saw Carlton back into the play off positions, fifth in the table with 48 points from 26 games and looking well set for a first play-off campaign in eight years but it was to be the final act of the season.

The Millers can look back on the season with pride. Pride at the results they achieved, pride in particular at the way they played and pride at the enjoyment they gave the supporters, who have not gone to games with such expectation for a number of years.Brookbanks, Harvey and coaches Paul Rockley and Dan Goddard, ably assisted by Phil Jennings and Trevor Wells, can be well-pleased with their work. But of course, the job wasn’t finished, so they’ve just got to do it all again.

Brookbanks told the supporters at a fund raiser a year ago, when he had just re-joined a Carlton side that had spent five years battling to avoid relegation, that his intention was to win the league. Those fans who weren’t here during his first spell may not have realised that he was deadly serious. They know now. The challenge for next year is to finish what was started this year and complete the job.But in the meantime, as we wait for life to return to some vestige of normality, we can simply offer our congratulations to all of the players, coaches and the two managers for a wonderful 2019-20 season. Well done, and thank you. 

 

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