NPL First Division Midlands
November 15, 2025
Ash Chambers and Jason Law were on target as Carlton Town won 3-2 at Mickleover to extend their lead at the top of the NPL Midlands division.
With Belper Town, Anstey Nomads and Corby Town all not playing this was an opportunity for the Millers to put a six-point gap between themselves and their closest rivals and they did so with a first ever league win at the Don Amott arena.
After 10 years at step 3 perhaps the king of caravans and the rest of the Sports fans thought life at step 4 would be easier than it has turned out to be. Mickleover complained after the game in somewhat salty fashion of Carlton’s “particularly aggressive” play. Should they ever find themselves in the NPL East they might discover what “particularly aggressive” play really is. In any event the visitors just had too much for the home side on the day and fully deserved their win.
Carlton made two changes to the side which had been beaten by Coleshill last time out. Shea Thompson-Harris returned after suspension to replace Alex Troke and Nat Watson was back after injury to replace Alex Howes. There was a place on the bench for new signing Huw Dawson.
Belper’s game at home to Shepshed fell victim to flooding during the course of the afternoon. That led to Nailers manager Lee Attenborough attending the game with some Nailers players including ex-Miller Kieran Preston. Also present were a group of 25 or so Belper fans who joined the impressive away support and cheered on Carlton vociferously for 90 minutes. They were an absolute credit to themselves and their club.
The Millers got off to a perfect start with a goal inside three minutes. Ewan Robson played a lovely pass to send Chambers away on the centre-left of goal. He drew goalkeeper Oliver Bosworth and then steered the ball past him for his first goal in five games. Five minutes later the home side levelled when Andy Dales found Dale Benson and he got to the ball ahead of Felix Annan to convert.
A fairly scrappy 15 minutes of so followed before the Carlton midfield took control of the game. Lamin Manneh, the target of some hefty challenges all afternoon by a succession of home players, sped down the right before playing the ball to Chambers who in turn set up Oliver Clark whose shot was blocked.
Thompson-Harris, who had an excellent game throughout, saw a rare shot fly over the bar after Sports failed to clear from a Lewis Durow throw. Robson then fed Manneh who once again ran at the defence but saw his shot go just wide.
Niall Hylton was having an impact and a fine run and cross saw Brad Gascoigne clear the danger.
With the game in the final minute of first half added time the Millers got the goal their pressure merited. Clark won the ball in midfield and slipped it to Watson. He laid it off to Niall Davie and the captain played a lovely ball to set Chambers free on goal with Ashton Offler playing him onside. With Bosworth off his line the Carlton support knew exactly what was coming and the Chambers trademark lob was executed to perfection with the ball landing just in front of the unguarded goal and bouncing gently into the net.
Sports had a spell of pressure around the hour mark and a cross from Stanley Holder found Josiah Dyer whose header was saved by a combination of Annan and his left-hand post. Another attack, this time down the left, saw an almighty scramble in the Carlton penalty area before the ball was cleared. Those were relatively rare moments of danger for the Millers with Dean Freeman and Robson commanding in the middle and Thompson-Harris and Durow dealing well with the pace of the Mickleover wide men.
Substitute Stuart Beavon saw a shot from the edge of the box go just wide and another attack down the left was expertly dealt with by Thompson-Harris.
The Millers have been guilty in recent wins of running out of energy in the latter stages of games and hanging on. However, this game was different. Substitutes Law and Dawson offered an immediate presence in midfield and took the game away from Sports just as they were starting to get on top. Indeed, it was these two players who combined for what turned out to be the winning goal.
Deep in right midfield Dawson sent Law away down the right. Law still had plenty to do but he looked up, cut inside his man, sped into the right corner of the area and then curled a delicious shot beyond Bosworth and into the corner of the net to spark ecstatic scenes amongst the Carlton and Belper fans behind the goal. The entire team including Annan ran the full length of the pitch to celebrate in what was one of the moments of the season.
Carlton brought on Troke and Ollie Taylor to add more energy and they did exactly that such that it seemed a fairly comfortable final eight minutes plus four added. That was until Sports pulled a goal back through Paddy Webb with a minute of added time remaining but they had run out of time and the league leaders went to celebrate with their joyous fans (and Belper’s) at the end of the game.
Carlton Town: F Annan, S Thompson-Harris, L Durow, D Freeman, E Robson, N Watson, L Manneh (A Troke 83), O Clark (J Law 69), A Chambers (H Dawson 69), N Davie (O Taylor 87), N Hylton. Unused sub: A Howes
Goals: Ash Chambers 3, 45+3, J Law 82; Danny Benson 8, Paddy Webb 90+3
Carlton Town Supporters Club MOTM: Shea Thompson-Harris
Att: 308
