IMPORTANT POSITIVES FOR CARLTON DESPITE BATTLING DEFEAT IN THE MOONSOON!
This was always going to prove a tricky fixture for the Millers, particularly given the spine of the team right down the middle in the shape of Martin Ball, Ollie Clark and Tyler Blake were all missing, but massive credit to the squad who stepped up to the plate.
Arron Opoku gave Carlton the lead after an excellent flick on from new striker Jack Gibson and Carlton were resolute all over the pitch in an excellent first half performance.
The positives mentioned came in the return of Captain Tom Maddison and Tyler Johal after a few weeks out, but the pace inevitably caught up with both of them in the second half , given they were both thrust back into the affray against the favourites for promotion.
Carlton’s injury situation does not allow for players being eased back in, but both will benefit from getting minutes under their belt.
The return of Josh Rae was another positive, with Josh linking up well with Arron Opoku and Niall Davey in particular and providing creative flair for the Millers on the right.
Perhaps the biggest positive however came off the pitch with the iniative led by supporters Seb and Ash in setting up with the backing of Supporters chief Alan Murphy and the club, a food bank collection.
The iniative received fantastic backing and shows what fantastic supporters the club has and credit to one or two Leek fans who also donated, the headline picture shows the amount of donations received.
The club is proud of it’s fantastic fans and this just showed the kind of brilliant human beings following this football club.
Former Local Mp Vernon Coaker rung the Chairman during the game to express his thanks and said he would donate to the food bank and also support the football club by Sponsoring a Match Ball in the coming weeks.
The message was duly passed onto the Supporters Club who have expressed their concerns of those living locally in poverty due to Covid 19 and who are struggling to feed their children and things are expected to get worse with many people locally expected to lose their jobs when Furlough finishes at the end of October.
On the pitch, credit should be given to Leek who proved formidable opponents once again and their constant pressure in the second half Finally paid dividends for them despite a brave and fierce battle by Tommy and Marks troops.
Hopefully, with players coming back, better results lie ahead in the coming weeks and finally a big thankyou to B4 painting and Mark Benner for Sponsoring the Matchball, if Carlton hadn’t spent decent money on their pitch during the summer, this could well have been abandoned, it was impossible to play any decent football towards the end with seemingly a months rain fall falling during the 90 minutes!
Joint manager Mark Harvey spoke to Carlton Town Tv after the game and although due to the horrendous conditions Neil Ward was unable to continue filming during the second half, he did capture Arron excellent goal , so watch this space !