Carlton Town overcame the early sending off of Aaron Hooton to claim a point in an enthralling encounter with Corby Town at Stoke Lane, writes Alan Murphy.
The Steelmen, making their first ever visit to the Bill Stokeld stadium, looked out of sorts in the first half and offered little threat to the Millers goal. That all changed in the second period when Jack Steggles and his defenders were besieged for long periods and only some heroic defending kept the visitors at bay.
The Steelmen knew only a win would keep alive their slim playoff hopes but it was Carlton, still looking for the points to guarantee safety from relegation, who started the sharper.
As early as the second minute Ben Hutchinson headed on a long throw by Kieran Walker to Kaylum Mitchell, whose mis-hit shot was almost diverted in by Hooton.
It was Mitchell who opened the scoring on 8 minutes in somewhat fortuitous circumstances. Another Walker throw was cleared only as far as Mitchell on the edge of the box. His volley took a huge deflection off Lee Garvie and the ball looped over goalkeeper Daniel Smith and into the net.
Corby struggled to respond and Carlton looked in control of the match and dangerous when they went forward.
Hooton had been getting involved in his usual arguments with opposing centre-halves but seemed even more on edge than usual. When Elliott was penalised for a foul midway inside the Corby half on 26 minutes, Hooton, having already been given two warnings by the referee, protested vigorously and was shown a yellow card. He carried on arguing and was shown a second yellow moments later and was sent off, much to the dismay of his team mates, who now had to play more than 60 minutes on a heavy pitch with 10 men.
The dismissal had no obvious effect in the first half. Carlton maintained their compact shape, Hutchinson did the running of two men, and Corby offered little. The closes the visitors came to scoring was a couple of free kicks hit well over the bar by Steven Leslie.
Indeed, it was Carlton who looked the more threatening and Hutchinson was desperately unlucky on 34 minutes when his arcing free kick crashed against the post with Smith beaten.
The Millers began the second half in the same vein and Brandon Mutibvu saw an effort turned away by Smith. Hutchinson, Niall Davie and Mitchell then combined for Mutibvu to have another shot which flew over the bar.
Corby started to move the ball wide, trying to stretch Carlton and make their numerical advantage count.
On 56 minutes a ball over the top saw Philip Trainer race through on goal, pursued by Fletcher and Darol Lucas. The two defenders did really well to force Trainer away from goal but his cross was flicked onto Connor Kennedy who looked certain to score until a quite magnificent goal-line headed clearance from Walker saved the day for Carlton.
The visitors went level on 69 minutes. Carlton failed to clear a cross from the right and when the loose ball fell to substitute Jake Bettles he calmly steered it past Steggles into the corner of the net.
Then came the game’s most controversial moment. Elliott lofted a lovely ball over the Corby defence from inside the centre circle. Wilson was just onside, being played on by left back Sam Warburton. Fellow substitute Blake was at least five yards behind Wilson and clearly onside. Blake ran onto the ball, out-paced and out-muscled Jamie Anton, and calmly prodded the ball past Smith and into the net only to have the goal ruled out for offside. The linesman’s flag can only have been directed at Wilson (he can’t possibly have thought Blake was offside) yet Wilson didn’t touch the ball, he was pushed to the floor by Anton, and he was in fact on side anyway. The home supporters were enraged and rightly so – it was an awful decision.
Corby of course didn’t care and they continued to bombard the Millers goal. The Carlton ten were throwing their bodies in front of the ball on an increasingly heavy surface to keep the visitors at bay.
In the first of the five added minutes Steggles saved from Leslie and then in the final minute of added time the Steelmen came within inches of winning the game. A free kick wasn’t cleared and when the ball dropped to Jordan Crawford on the edge of the box his volley struck the post before being hacked away.
It was the final action of the match and when the referee blew his whistle several of the Carlton players collapsed on the pitch, such had been their efforts to secure the point.
Carlton Town: Steggles, Lucas, Davie, Bertram, Fletcher, Walker, Mutibvu (Blake 67), Elliott, Hooton, Hutchinson (Wilson 71), Mitchell (Danquah 67). Unused substitutes: Akaunu, Wallace
Goals: Kaylum Mitchell 8; Jake Bettles 69
