CRACKING MERTHYR TRIP BRINGS SMILES ALL ROUND !
Carlton Town did their best to ensure the travelling contingent from Merthyr Town were made very welcome at Stoke Lane 12 months ago and it’s fair to say Merthyr did the same for the Millers and then some on the return trip.
The Chairman , Joint managers and Commercial manager were among those who traveled down on Friday afternoon meeting up in the town and joining up with Merthyr officials and supporters for Friday evening drinks, stories and banter and missing out on their planned Indian, the chatter went on for that long, a kebab house saved the day as a healthy alternative!
Saturday arrived and Carlton officials arrived early, conscious of representing the club at the 1pm Memorial service and also in Boatsy’s case at least, keen to get in a livener ahead of a busy afternoon.
Carlton Fans started to arrive, Dave Hodgson was among the first closely followed by the Dorking branch, some who had been camping and then a number who had traveled straight from Nottingham.
Carlton officials were given a tour of the amazing facilities, before attending the emotional opening of a Memorial garden which included a brilliant local choir with the event led by the club’s Chaplain David Powell.
It was fair to say that by this time, the Carlton contingent were all in need of liquid refreshment given the boiling conditions.
The Carlton Chairman Mick Garton met with local Labour Mp Gerald Jones, who had cut the tape to open the new garden and is a friend of Carlton club friend and sponsor Vernon Coaker, his relationship with Merthyr is on a similar footing.
Time to put on the striking Brain Tumour Research pink shirts, with both club’s getting behind the important initiative, headed up by Carlton’s Director of Football Daryll Claypole.
The game was delayed due to a major road closure and a number of Carlton players only arrived shortly before kick off, but with everyone safely in the ground , the game kicked off at 3.20pm.
Carlton faced a much improved Merthyr team from the one that visited Stoke Lane last summer and Merthyr had the best of the first half and were thankful to their keeper Mike Emery for two brilliant saves.
Merthyr took the lead through a penalty, but an excellent equaliser from the impressive Alex Howes saw the teams level at the interval.
Carlton were much improved in the second half and had several chances to win, the best falling to Brad Wells, but the Merthyr keeper got a vital late touch to keep out his goal bound effort.
The game finished 1-1 , but the dugouts had agreed on a penalty shoot out to determine a winner and it was Merthyr who ran out 5-4 winners with Brad wells hitting the post, the only one not to convert sadly for the Millers, he notebly received some light hearted banter afterwards, but will hopefully deliver on the pitch for the Millers next season when it really matters.
The hospitality for the Millers after the game for Carlton was first class and supporters, management and family and many of the players stopped long into the night, making a point of supporting the bar and indeed one or two from both clubs were clearly the worse for ware.
One Merthyr fan was asleep at the table and one Carlton fan is rumoured to have fell into a ditch, a cracking night indeed and the Chairman has already made contact with Mark from Merthyr who is indeed also from the Welch Fa, thanking him and the club for the brilliant welcome and night which featured a singer and cracking music throughout the night.
“The only thing we don’t have is a DJ in a suite” joked one Merthyr official obviously referring to DJ Sanji Beri who was on at Stoke Lane 12 months ago.
A lovely message soon came back from Mark and the millers look forward to hosting Merthyr again next summer.
Tommy introduced Chairman Mick Garton and Vice Chairman Barry North to the new players, many who had impressed in the boiling conditions earlier.
We will start the build up to Carlton’s first home pre season game in the coming 24 hours.
