Chairman - David Dent
Secretary - Martyn Tweddle
Treasurer - Diane Dent
Directors - Alan Boddy
Brian Burn
Carolyn Mulley
Paul Mulley
Norman Smith
Tony Bennett
Academy Director - Darren Tait President - John Atkinson
The Club is under the significant control and ownership of our Chairman, David Dent, and our Treasurer, Diane Dent.
Major Shareholders : Davd & Diane Dent 64% Barry Murphy 20%.
Private Limited Company Company No. 00103858
Anyone who follows Shildon AFC will know that we have gone through an extremely difficult period at a time when I feel that we were getting the Club as a whole onto a different level.
Despite our indifferent start attendances have improved and I want to thank our supporters who have remained loyal to us during this time. Our links with the Community are just getting stronger and I’m really pleased to see children from Thornhill and their families join us today. Our newly formed charity is starting to run programmes for the wider community as well and we are now offering football, under the Shildon AFC umbrella from the Under 4’s to the Over 50’s with our Walking Football.
We have attempted to improve match day experiences for our fans by giving them the opportunity to buy tickets on line which worked really well with our recent game with South Shields and we have listened to our supporters and I can assure you that only will complement and not replace paying cash at the turnstiles. Our cabin, adjacent to the the Community Garden also relieves pressure on the bar as well. If we want to progress we do need our Supporters to come to Dean Street early and use our hospitality. I promise that every pound that is spent in the ground goes towards the Playing budget!!
Our newly built Changing block is superb which again is a massive step in the right direction for the Club.
I’m very much aware that all of the good work that we are doing off the pitch must be complemented with performances on the pitch, which this season hasn’t been good enough. Ultimately, the Management Team stand or fall by results and regretfully we took the decision to relieve Jamie and Deano from their duties. I would like to place on record our thanks for all the hard work and enthusiasm from really nice people who will always be welcome at Dean Street. We’ve all learnt lessons from this experience and I’m sure they will come back stronger and will have a big future in local football.
We’ve now got to look to the future and after Alex, Chay, Ben and Chris stepped in and whilst not getting the results they would have wanted bought myself, Diane and the wider Board some time to consider who our next new Manager would be.
We’ve now made that decision and I’m absolutely delighted to welcome Ian Clark to the Club as First Team Manager. Ian has nearly 300 Football League games under his belt as a Player, an excellent coaching background and over the last few years played a big part in taking Marske United to the Northern Premier, Premier League which is a fantastic achievement for a town about the same size as Shildon. He now wants to help Shildon AFC realise our potential and he’s a winner who will command the respect of the dressing room. I’m really looking forward to working with Ian to help shape and deliver our ambitions for the Club over the next few years. Firstly, we need to address the here and now and that’s to get us to climb up the League. I’m absolutely confident with Ian’s skills, experience and contacts we are now in a good place to get us back to where we should be.
We cannot do this without your support, we are all in this together, whether you are a player, Management, Director, volunteer, sponsor, Season ticket holder, Executive member, community partner or someone who pays whenever they get to a game. We need all of you backing the new Manager and the Club and if we do we will go on and create some more great memories together.
Thank you for your support
1. Which player scored four goals in 12 minutes after coming on as a sub versus Nottingham Forest?
2. Which player holds the record for most consecutive Premier League appearances (310)
3. Who was the last Manchester United player to win the Ballon d'Or before Cristiano Ronaldo
4. Which current Premier League team has launched a bid to be officially recognised as the oldest professional club in the world
5. With 170 caps to her name, which player has made the most appearances for the England women ' s national team?
6. In 1986, defender Alvin Martin scored a hat trick in an 8-1 victory over Newcastle. What was so peculiar about his achievement?
7. How many Ballon d'Or awards has Lionel Messi won?
8. Which player was sold for the highest transfer fee ever received by a Premier League team?
9. Which Premier League or EFL team is known as: The Cod Army
10. Who is the only player to win the Champions League with three different clubs? Answers
1. Ole Gunnar Solsjaer 2. Gareth Barry 632 3. George Best 4. Crystal Palace 5. Fara Williams 6. Scored against 3 different goalkeepers. 7. 7 8.Philippe Coutinho 9. Fleetwood Town 10 Clarence Seedorf
FORMED in 1890 as Shildon Town, the Railwaymen joined the Auckland and District League two years later and in 1894 merged with the Rangers and Heroes to become Shildon United. In 1900, the club played in the new Northern League Division Two but folded that season due to financial problems – as did the Second Division.
A re-formed club joined the Northern League in 1903 to replace Stockton St John’s. In 1907, Shildon joined the semi-professional ranks of the North Eastern League, finishing second in season 1932/33.
Before WWII the club won four successive Northern League Division One titles; a record that stood until overhauled by Blyth in 1984. In 1937 the team was unbeaten on their march to the title with Jack Downing firing in a record 61 league and cup goals.
A replay win at York City in 1927/28 saw the club reach the first round proper of the FA Cup for the first time. In the first round they have also played Brentford, Doncaster Rovers, Lincoln City, Scunthorpe United and Oldham Athletic three times.The last time the club reached the first round was in 2003/04, losing out 7-2 against Notts County.The club also reached the second round, in 1936/37 against Dartford.
The Dean Street turnstiles and distinctive grandstand were erected in 1923.A £45,000 grant saw new dressing rooms and a social club built beneath the stand 60 years later.
Shildon won the Second Division championship in 2001/02, scoring 135 goals and finished runners-up in two cup competitions.The following season they won the Northern League Challenge Cup with a 3-2 golden goal victory over Billingham Synthonia at Feethams.
Tragedy struck the club in February 2004 when 26-year-old player, Lee Hainsworth was killed in a road accident on his way to training. He had been with the club for six years.The Brown Street stand was renamed in his memory.
Bill Aisbitt, a lifelong stalwart at the club, died in June 2003 and the boardroom was named in his honour after over 50 years loyal service.
At the end of the 2004 season, the Railwaymen came under serious threat through financial difficulties when the former chairman severed all ties with the club.At the end of the season all the players and the manager left the club, leaving it crippled.
But during the close season, the club appointed a new chairman, Brian Burn who ensured its survival.The club survived a relegation scare and since then has gone from strength to strength.
In 2012-13, the club reached two cup semi-finals.A depleted side lost in the Durham Challenge Cup to Spennymoor Town.The match brought an end to the playing career of midfielder Chris Hughes after he suffered a knee injury. And there was more heartbreak as the side narrowly missed a dream day out at Wembley after losing their two-legged FA Vase semi-final to a late extra-time goal in the second leg at home.
In season 2013-14, the management team further strengthened the playing squad, bring in several experienced players in a determination to bring silverware back to Dean Street for the first time.The investment paid off with the club narrowly missing out on the league title, remaining competitive until the final weeks of the season.
But the club were able to avenge the semi-final defeat of the previous season when they faced Spennymoor Town in the final of the Durham Challenge Cup. On an historic Good Friday, Shildon striker, Billy Greulich-Smith added a new chapter to the club’s history books with two late goals – the winner in added time at the end of the 90 minutes – to overcome their local rivals by two goals to one.After missing out on the Northern League Championship in the 201415 season by one point, the team re-grouped and won the Northern League Cup and became Champions of the Northern League the following season.
Following the sudden departure of the Management Team, Chairman David Dent appointed Daniel Moore in January 2017 and Moore guided us to 3rd position in the League and a Durham Challenge Cup Semi-Final.
The first piece of silverware came at the start of the 2018/19 season with a 41 Penalty victory against Dunston UTS. During this season Daniel Moore guided us to another top 6 finish and the season finished as it started with silverware coming back to Dean Street after the Club defeated South Shields 1-0 in the final of the Durham Challenge Cup held at the Stadium of Light.
For the 2021/22 season, and after 2,896 games in the Northern League, the Club has been promoted to Step 4 of the Football Pyramid (Northern Premier League – East), the highest level the Club has ever played at.I
n our inaugural season in the Northern Premier League East we finished the season in a creditable 5th Position. In the play off game we were narrowly beaten by Marske United. Further improvements have been going on through the summer with the community garden now finished and open as well as a new changing block to bring us up to league standard.
Jamie Tunstall and Deano Browne were also installed as the new management team.
Foul on Kurt as he tries to break down the wing
Billy sees a header just go over the bar.
v Consett
The Colombian Connection
In recent years, we have seen players at the end of their careers make big money moves to the more distant reaches of the footballing landscape. China, the USA, and the Middle East have all proven alluring temptations for celebrated heroes (who, let’s be honest, have already made a fortune) to finish off with one giant pay packet. But rarely has this move been made at the pinnacle of a player’s ability. This hasn’t always been the case.
In the period following the Second World War, England, along with most other footballing nations, had strict pay restrictions that limited their players income to a level broadly similar to the fans in the stand. Halcyon days, some might think, compared to Cristiano Ronaldo’s reported half a million a week. But while £20/week (the maximum wage) was only slightly higher than the average at the time, in the few nations that did not impose a pay cap, there was the potential of vast fortunes to be made. One of those nations was Colombia, and one of their clubs – Independiente Santa Fe – used this to their advantage.
When Charlie Mitten joined Manchester United on a tour of South America, it dawned on him that the club were making significant money out of his ability, and he questioned whether he should be getting more. The club, of course, didn’t pay much attention to this, so Luis Robledo saw his chance. The Cambridge-educated businessman believed that football could bring to an end his country’s civil war, and would pay any sum to try to achieve it. Mitten was offered £40/week, double the English maximum wage, and a signing bonus of £5,000. Obviously, he accepted.
Robledo wasn’t finished there, however. He made use of his connections back in Britain to approach two players plying their trade for Stoke City. One, George Mountford, was a talented winger, but the other, Neil Franklin, was perhaps the best defender of his generation. Strong in the tackle, good in the air, and as Stanley Matthews put it, “all the guile and intelligence of the most cerebral of inside forwards”. He declined participation in the 1950 World Cup to move to Bogota and link up with Mountford and Mitten, a World Cup in which England were humiliated by the United States. What might have been.
Unfortunately, the South American gamble proved much more like El Dorado than they had imagined. In that it didn’t really exist. The civil war made it difficult to settle, and a 6:30 curfew meant there was no social life to speak of, where players could have spent their fortune. But then, they didn’t receive much of a fortune anyway. Payments were erratic and, once the players had moved their whole lives to South America, the money seemed to dry up. Signing on fees were not paid, Franklin reportedly only received one week’s pay, and their
performances (when they played), though acceptable, were not the legendary displays everybody had been expecting. Franklin left after six games. Mountford managed a few months. Mitten, the pioneer, managed a little longer, before turning down a move to Real Madrid with Alfredo di Stefano to come back to England. None were rich, and all were disgraced.
All of the players received suspensions, and Mitten was fined six months’ wages by Sir Matt Busby. It was made clear that Franklin was not welcome back at Stoke, or any other top flight club, so he dropped a division to play for Hull (who had tried to make him the most expensive player in the world before his Colombian adventure). He didn’t get the opportunity to return to national team duties either. He is one of the great English what might have beens.
Columbia, also, were sanctioned by FIFA for poaching players. Alongside Santa Fe, other clubs had poached from other areas of the world. Millionaros, for example, had attracted the aforementioned di Stefano, a move that saw the great man turn out for the Colombian national side. But the FIFA
punishment for their disregard of footballing orthodoxy was a ban from international competition, so his caps never counted. He switched nationality from Argentina to Spain a few years later, just to confuse things even more.
Franklin would later admit that the whole affair was, obviously, a mistake. His still became the most expensive defender in the world, but injuries at Hull prevented him from ever fulfilling the potential he had shown as a young player. It would be hard not to regret everything about it. He finished his career at Crewe in the late 1950s, around the same time as Colombia had their ban overturned and had the honour of taking part at the 1958 World Cup, and former team mate Stanley Matthew was being lauded as one of the best players in the world.
Enjoy the game.
Martyn Green The Untold Game
Find more at TheUntoldGame.co.uk and on social media @TheUntoldGamea
By Matthew Badcock
THERE’S NOTHING quite like the stress of a looming deadline when something goes a bit awry at NLP Towers.
And so it was last Saturday night when, through no one ’ s fault, there was an issue with the penalty shoot-out scores on the FA Trophy and FA Vase results.
It meant one person shouting them out while another manually bashed them in while the ticking clock grew ever louder.
In years gone past, these games would have gone to replays but we ’ ve seen as the knock-on from Covid, those games settled on the day.
The general impression we get from managers and players is stopping replays in those two cup competitions has been the right decision.
However, the feeling is a bit different when it comes to the FA Cup, where a club can reap the financial benefits from a a replay with a so-called big gun.
FA Cup replays this season have been brought back, but only until the fourth round. After that, it’s on the day.
So it does feel a bit concerning when reading reports some Premier League clubs are keen to can them all together, citing fixture congestion.
Mark us down as sceptical. And here is where the views of the whole game must be taken into account.
Everyone knows how important the FA Cup is to clubs throughout the Pyramid. It is one of the best sources of income through prize money, with the addition of losers’ money in recent seasons a major success – even considering the cut in money the game had to absorb from covid. But binning replays in the third and fourth round – they’re already gone after that – would be another kick in the teeth.
Let’s take Kidderminster Harriers last year. The National League North side were literally seconds away from one of the competition’s finest ever upsets last season in the fourth round. That was until West Ham United were rescued by Declan Rice, with a late equaliser. Replays were out last season and it went to extra-time where Jarrod Bowen popped up with the last kick to end Kiddy’s dream run.
In the same situation this season, that game would go to a replay back at the London Stadium and the Step 2 club would have banked vital money from gate receipts and possibly another TV selection had it been picked.
That revenue, won on the field rather than handed out from broadcast deals, can’t be underestimated.
It seems the FA are intent on digging their heels in and not letting the elite get their way entirely. Let’s hope that’s the case.
A NEW TEAM FOR ME; CARLTON TOWN
A warm welcome to our new friends from Nottinghamshire, Carlton Town who are based in Gedling which is next door to Carlton, which is a bit like where Coronation runs into Bridge Place which runs into Eldon Lane. I think the word is contiguous. They are a club that I have never seen play, let alone go to their ground and it seems unlikely that I will this season. Who knows about next year, Carlton spent last season in the Midland Division before being switched to the Eastern Division for this season so it is quite possible that they may push them into the West Division for 2023/24. And why not? They would love a trip to Workington. If they think that trips to Dunston, Hebburn, Consett and ourselves are tricky, the West Cumbria coast will blow their heads off.
They were formed in 1905 and for many years played at Sneiton, home of a famous windmill owned by the Green family. After scuffling about in local football, they emerged from the Central Midlands League in 1995 and were promoted to the Northern Counties East League, switching to the NPL in 2007.
By this time they had a new ground which they named after a much loved and well respected Chairman, Bill Stokeld, a ground which is a tribute to the current chair, Mick Garton, If he is here today and he reads this, it’s people like Mick who keep semi professional football going in this country.
They seem quite content to amble along in this league. Situated four and a bit miles north east of Nottingham, there are a number of other clubs to whom footie fans can swear loyalty to. Forest and County, two serious underachievers, are a short hop away on the train while Mansfield Town are just up the A38 and there are non league clubs at Hucknall, Gedling and various other places nearby. Crowds may not be the highest in the league but they have a loyal following and I hope that any Millers fans here today enjoy their trip to “The Cradle of the Railways.”
We have had some changes at the J, Denham Metals Dean Street Stadium since we last gathered here. After a disappointing performance at Brighouse Town, the management team were “relieved of their duties” as the phrase goes.
The Chairman followed Shakespeare’s advice in Macbeth. The Bard, anticipating the development of football 300 years before it was ser up gave this advice to club owners; “if it were done when ‘tis done then ‘twere well it was done quick,” It clearly wasn’t working for the management team and so we are looking for someone to come in and give the team a lift and get us away from the rather worrying position that we find ourselves in. The bottom two go down and third and fourth from bottom go into a winner takes all play off with a feeder league team. Play offs are great when you win them but bitterly disappointing when you don’t I know; I’m a Sunderland supporter. Jamie and Deano worked hard to get things right but perhaps lacked the experience at this level to continue the success we had last season. Wherever they end up, I wish them all the best. They will get another chance, sooner or later.
So, where do we go from here? It was good to see Alex White and Chay Liddle step up to the plate and take the team at Hebburn. They are both experienced football men and clearly have an affinity for this club and hopefully, that will transfer itself to the new players who have joined us this season. Aided by Craig Hughes, it would be great to see them lift us out of the doldrums and achieve mid table respectability come April. The last time we appointed from within with Daniel Moore and Mark Hudson, things seemed to go pretty well. We all wish them well. What of today’s visitors? Their home and away form has been identical, taking 4 points from each. Away from The Bill Stokeld, they have won at Grimsby Borough,who are below us and drawn at Bridlington, who we thrashed 6-0. Their two defeats on the road have been heavy; 4-1 at Brighouse and a 5-0 walloping at Consett. Hopefully, they will have another disappointing experience in County Durham and will curse Worksop Town for still being engaged in the FA Trophy. Of past players, there is little to report. Ben Hutchinson, who Middlesbrough fans may remember started out at Carlton before making a high profile move to The Riverside Stadium. He played 8 first team games, went on loan to Billingham Synthonia, then a strong NL First Division side and subsequently moved to Celtic. That didn’t work out and he followed the lifestyle of a journeyman player, winning short term contracts at the likes of Kilmarnock, Dundee and Mansfield Town before going non-league with Nuneaton and Carlton’s deadly rivals Basford Town. He returned to Carlton a few years ago but extensive research (Google) has failed to discover whether he is still playing or if he has hung up his boots.
Carlton is a small town, but it does have one famous son, albeit one who passed away at a ridiculously early age. If I were to mention Geoffrey from the sitcom, The Lovers, you might have some idea of who this was. Throw in Alan Moore from Rising Damp and more would nod knowingly. But give you Lennie Godber from Porridge and there would be an outburst of “Richard Beckinsale. Mind, he was a canny actor. Pity he died so young. ”
Richard was born in Carlton and went to school there. He always wanted to act and when he got the role of Geoffrey opposite Paula Wilcocks, he was on the ladder to fame and fortune. He hit it off brilliantly with Ronnie Barker as the new boy in the prison system being aided by the old lag, Fletcher. In the classic “A Quiet Night In”, a two hander with Godber and Fletcher the brilliant script by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais is made even better by the ability of the actors to take a script and run with it.
Tragically, Richard died of a heart attack at the age of 32. Mny of us will remember him. He loved football. Whether he watched Sneiton/ Carlton Town is unknown but I am sure that some visiting fans and officials will have fond memories of him.
Up The Railwaymen
Many Thanks to all our volunteers for all their invaluable help during the season.
General Manager - Michael Wilson
Gatemen - Peter Quinn
Andy Hilling
Maintenance - Daniel Tatham
Kieran Dent
Pitch Maintenance - Tom Finley
Event Co-Ordinator - Carolyn Mulley
Matchday Operative - David Race
Interviews - Wilf Tray / Chris Pearce
Programme Article - Peter Sixsmith
Kitchen/Bar Manager - Sue Charlton
Cleaning - Ellie Barron-Hay
50/50 Ticket Sales - Liam Stockley
Boardroom Hospitality - Sid Dent
PA Announcer - Dennis Duncan
Photography - Tom Clegg & Amanda Scaife
CARLTON TOWN HISTORY
The Club was founded in 1904 under the name of Sneinton FC and for much of the 20th century played its football in the Nottinghamshire Football Alliance. Sneinton won the league in 1905-06 and picked up three titles in succession between 1907-08 and 1909-10. The League was strong enough in the early part of the century to enter clubs into the qualifying rounds of the FA Cup and Sneinton competed for 20 successive seasons between 1907-08 and 1930-31 albeit never progressing beyond the First Round Qualifying. It would be 73 years before they entered the Cup again. Indeed, the club had to wait some time for further success, winning the Second Division title (third tier) in 1984-85 and the First Division title (second tier) in 1992-93. The club had led somewhat of a nomadic existence, playing at various grounds, and only settled at its current location of Stoke Lane, Gedling, in the early 1990s. This move coincided with the ambition from within the Club to progress beyond the confines of County football and, following a third-place finish in the Senior Division (top tier) in 199495, the club joined the Central Midlands Football League. The first season in the CML was reasonable, but at the start of the 1996-97 campaign the Club was left with just three players and no manager. In a desperate quandary, chairman Bill Stokeld turned to former players Tommy Brookbanks and Neil Cooper who agreed to take over the managerial reigns at Sneinton, and there began a period of outstanding success.
Brookbanks led the club brilliantly for 14 years from 1996 – 2010 with the club gaining four promotions under his stewardship. He took just two years to gain promotion from the Premier Division to the Supreme Division of the CML, and three years later only ground grading issues prevented elevation into the Northern Counties East League. In 2002 chairman Mick Garton of local company MSR Newsgroup took over the hot seat at Stoke Lane in 2002 bringing finances to ensure ground-grading wouldn’t be an issue again and the club also changed its name to Carlton Town. In its first season under its new name it duly won the CML title and gained promotion to the First Division of the NCEL. The Millers spent three years in this division before winning the league in 2005-06 and gaining promotion to the NCEL Premier Division. However, by this stage the club was without club President and legend Bill Stokeld, who passed away watching the Millers on 23 October 2004. Bill had been involved with the Club for over 50 years and it is fitting
that his name lives on through the name of the stadium itself. On the last day of the following season, 2006-07, Dean Gent’s 94th minute winner secured a 2-1 win at Garforth to earn a second successive promotion, this time to the NPL First Division South. Carlton have remained at Step 4 ever since.
Carlton’s first season at this level saw them finish a creditable 10th, and in 2008-09 they finished fourth and made the play-offs, where future England international Jamie Vardy was amongst the scorers as Stocksbridge Park Steels won 5-2 in South Yorkshire. Another top half finish followed in 2009-10 before Brookbanks decided to move on to Premier Division Hucknall Town.
New manager Les McJannet recruited a whole new squad, and his side made a fantastic start to the campaign, losing just one of the opening 15 games and finishing in eighth place. The club also made it to the Final of the Notts Senior Cup for the first time before being well beaten by Conference North Eastwood Town. The next three seasons brought even more success. 2011-12 saw the Millers finish second in the table, their highest pyramid finish to date, score 101 league goals and only go out of the play-offs after a penalty shoot-out defeat against Leek Town. The league form dipped in 2012-13 but McJannet brought silverware to the Club in the form of a first ever Notts Senior Cup success, beating his former club Sutton Town 5-2 in the Final, even though centre-half Grant Brindley had to play in goal due to an injury crisis. The club also made it through the Third Round Qualifying of the FA Cup for the first time before going out to Bradford (Park Avenue).
The Millers finished tenth in 2013-14 and once again the team save its best performances for the cup competitions, with another Third Round Qualifying appearance in the FA Cup and a best-ever Semi-Final showing in the League Cup in a run which included a memorable Quarter-Final win at home to FC United of Manchester. The Millers also retained the Notts Senior Cup in some style, beating Rainworth MW 6-2 in the final. If the first half of the decade had been characterised by success after success, the following five years was seemingly one long struggle against relegation in front of everdecreasing crowds with just the one tremendous highlight in the middle. In 2014-15 the Millers opened with three defeats and never really recovered, eventually finishing in 18th position. At the end of the campaign McJannet decided to call it a day. He was replaced by his assistant Wayne Scott who had led the Under 21s to an impressive second place in their division in McJannet’s final year. Scott’s first two seasons in charge were almost identical, with Carlton starting poorly before hitting their stride in February or March, putting together excellent winning runs, and pulling well clear of the drop in points terms at least.
Those seasons saw 18th and 19th placed finishes in the league but Scott’s second season at the helm ended in spectacular style with the manager leading the club to its third win in the Notts Senior Cup, beating local rivals Basford United 4-1 at Notts County’s Meadow Lane.
2017-18 saw a good start but a horrendous run of postponements saw Carlton having to play their final 12 matches in the last 24 days of the season, and without a win in the last 10 they once again finished 19th.
2018-19 saw Carlton play in the newly-reorganised NPL First Division East which included some mammoth away journeys including a 344-mile round trip to Morpeth but contained just 20 teams, down from the previous 22. Carlton struggled and once again finished 19th which should have meant relegation, but the Millers were granted a reprieve after AFC Mansfield were relegated instead for ground-grading issues. At the end of the campaign Carlton parted company with Scott and Brookbanks returned as manager, jointly with his ex-Coalville sidekick Mark Harvey. The NPL abandoned the East-West split of the First Division after just one season due to imbalance in the travelling distances and returned effectively to a North-South split, albeit with the two divisional names being slightly different. The change was instant, with the team playing a more entertaining pass and move style and the two managers inspiring some excellent displays out of a squad that was otherwise more or less the same that had been at the club the previous year. Carlton hit the ground running in 2019-20 with four straight wins. They spent a month at the top of the table in the Autumn and were in fifth place in the table when the season was brought to its abrupt end due to Covid 19.
Carlton only managed to play nine league games of the truncated 2020-21 season before it too was brought to an early end due to the virus. They did manage a first FA Cup win in six years, albeit on penalties, and their best display of the campaign was in defeat at higher ranked Banbury United in the same competition.
The summer of 2021 saw the expansion of Step 4 which led to Carlton being placed into the newly-formed NPL Midlands division. 2021-22 was a fine season with the Millers winning five of the opening six games to mount a genuine promotion challenge. Carlton slipped out of the top five after some inconsistent displays in the winter months, but the side rallied towards the end of the campaign and only just missed out on a play-off spot
with a sixth placed finish, the best in 10 years.
The Millers won through to the First Round proper of the FA Trophy for the first time and picked up their fourth Notts Senior Cup title with a 1-0 win against Mansfield Town U23. The Semi-Final win against Nottingham Forest U23 was played in front of a club-record home crowd of 733.
Off the pitch the club’s commercial team made great strides in engaging with the local community and bringing start guests to the club on matchdays and a thriving supporters club saw home gates and away followings increase substantially. A significant amount of money was spent on pitch improvements which saw only one home game postponed during the season and the club are actively looking to develop the ground. The club was moved divisions again in the summer and will play 2022-23 in the First Division East of the NPL. This will once again mean some mammoth away trips to the North-East, but the club will be looking to build on the success of last season and mount another genuine promotion challenge.
Many Thanks to Prince Bishops Hospital Radio and Dennis Duncan for the Pre-Match & Half Time Announcements
Matty Bateman (GK)
Billy Greulich-Smith
Aidan Heywood
Ben Trotter
Jack Vaulks
Kurt Matthews
Chay Liddle
Dean Thexton
Joe Posthill
Michael Sweet
Alex White
David Atkinson
Jon Weirs
Wilson Kneeshaw
Max Booth
Vinnie Steels
Toby Pascoe
James Boucher
Lucas Hallimond
Kory Whitfield
Karl Dinsdale
Referee
Graeme Hopper
Assistants
Craig Chatten
David Carr
Michael Emery
Lawrence Stewart
Tyler Johal
Daniel Brown
Martin Ball
Cain Noble
Niall Davie
Kyle Tomlin
Aaron Opoku
Aaron O'Connor
Tyler Blake
Ryan Tait
Richard Stainsby
Alex Howes
Bradley Wells
Nat Watson
Khyle Sargent
Lewis Durow
Niall Hylton