ANOTHER PAINFUL NARROW DEFEAT AT A PACKED OUT STOKE LANE !

Mapperley All Stars who the Millers have a close relationship with were the club’s very special guests for Saturday’s visit of Stockbridge Park Steels and provided mascots, thanks to Boatsy, to lead the players out at a packed out Stoke Lane.

With the young players and parents of MAS attending in numbers, it helped boost the crowd to a best of the season so far, 352 on a fairly mild and dry November afternoon.

The Millers have tried to create a feeling of theatre around their home Saturday matches this season, with guest speakers where possible, Mascots and the Miller Mouse, guests from the Junior section and this Saturday was no exception.

New local Mp Michael Payne was a special guest with league sponsors “Pitching in” and Nottinghamshire’s Director of Cricket Mick Newall was the pre match guest speaker.
The club have formed a warm link with the cricket club, which has been well documented and Mick spoke brilliantly and honestly before the game in the Howard Mitchell Sportsbar.

Alistar played out the “Last Post” to commemorate Remembrance Day which falls on Monday this year and received warm applause indeed.

Unfortnately on the pitch, the Millers current dip in form continued and they once again went down to the odd goal, losing 3-2 to Stockbridge after twice leading in a pulsating contest in front of the packed crowd.
A penalty from skipper Niall Davie (pictured) and a good finish from Ollie Clark were in vain as Tommy Marshall scored a hatrick for the visitors, although the Millers will feel they made it somewhat easy for him with poor defending.

The Millers are 11th in the Northern Premier East League with 6 wins, 4 draws and 6 defeats from their opening 16 games of the campaign.

Off the pitch, an alarming story was emerging of a Water Plus invoice of over £10,000 arriving in their in tray on Friday morning.
The Millers did put a lot of their effort into watering the pitch during the pre season in an effort to get it as perfect as possible for the first team and their Academy partners and had budgeted for an invoice of just over 3k, well above their usual £600 quarterly charge, so were somewhat astounded and staggered by the huge bill.

The water bill has brought back memories of the huge Electric bill at the end of the 2022-2023 season and is yet another financial challenge for the Millers, but one they are already focused on somehow dealing with.
The club will let supporters know in the next day or so what their plans are to deal with this huge shock, through this website.

Finally John Desmond Bryson was on Media duty for Carlton Town Tv and caught up with Assistant Manager Andy Clerke after the 3-2 defeat.