CRUCIAL MAINTENANCE WORKS STARTS AT STOKE LANE!

Carlton Town have begun the task of ensuring they achieve ground grading to at least maintain their step four status, after seeing Afc Mansfield fail to pass their own last season, something which enabled Carlton to stay up !

New seats to replace broken ones have been ordered for the Paul Shelton stand (pictured), work has commenced in the car park and Floodlights tests have been carried out this week.

On top of that, the club have moved to deal with concerns regarding the club’s pitch which has not been draining well. Former long standing groundsman Bob Sharp and secretary and more recent  groundsman Trevor Wells highlighted a previously unnoticed problem and after several phone calls for advice, drainage specialists were called in today and the club hopes that emergency work carried out immediately will help substantially ease the problem.

While the club can not be blamed for the horrendous rain we have had this winter, the time taken for the pitch to drain has been causing considerable concern, given it has had less games played on it this season than in any of the previous few years by some distance.

The bigger picture of course is to ensure money is in place during the summer to allocate money towards the pitch or whatever else is a priority and Chairman Mick Garton has important meetings in the coming days with major sponsors to hopefully get the crucial support to stage some vital fundraisers.

The Chairman has already launched the next Dragon fund raising raffle and secured two hospitality places in an executive box at Nottinghamshire County Cricket for a T20 game this summer. The prize is worth over £250 and will be the first prize at the next Dragon event which we will be announced shortly.

The Chairman has also spoken to the Northern Premier Academy league about dealing with the Academy’s fixture backlog and Long Eaton United after an excellent suggestion from Joint first team manager Mark Harvey.

It has been agreed in principle to stage the next two Academy home games on Long Eaton’s 4G pitch to avoid further postponements on the understanding the games revert to Stoke Lane after that and the club are grateful to the league and Long Eaton United for their help with this.

The club have been delighted to announce in recent weeks that they had secured some key players on contracts , but the Senior management are also well aware that the infrastructure needs vital investment and striking the balance between investing in the squad and in the facilities is a huge challenge in itself and one that many clubs undoubtedly get wrong.

One thing that is certain is that the Academy team had an excellent away at Mossley this week , winning 4-2 and are now away again next Wednesday at Mickleover in the cup, followed by home games on Wednesday 5th February and Wednesday February 12th which will hopefully be held at Long Eaton United.

Carltons first team are away at Sheffield this coming Saturday, at home to Bingham Town next Wednesday and at home again on Saturday 1st February to Belper Town.

This website will endeavour to keep Supporters up to date !