The Opposition - History
Carlton Town were originally formed in 1904 as Sneinton Football Club and enjoyed considerable success in their early years.
The Notts Alliance League was secured in four out of five seasons between 1905 and 1910 and in the 1920s they added a Notts Alliance Cup and Carlton and District Charity Cup as they rebuilt after losing several players during World War I.
They became champions of the Notts Spartan League in 1933 but then had to disband ahead of World War II.
Reforming in 1947, they moved to Division Three of the Notts Amateur League and a decade later they were playing in Division Two.
The 1960s saw Sneinton struggle for players and it wasn't until 1985 that they secured further silverware, winning the Notts Alliance League Division Two.
In to the 90s and the club moved to its current home, the Bill Stokeld Stadium in Gedling and joined the Central Midlands Football League.
The name change to Carlton Town came in 2002 to reflect the fact that Gedling had historically been in a parish named Carlton-le-Willows, forming part of the Carlton Urban District.
By 2007 they had reached the NPL Division One South and they have remained at that level ever since, reaching the Playoffs on two occasions but finishing in 18th or 19th in five successive seasons, avoiding relegation on one occasion due to ground grading issues at AFC Mansfield.

The Opposition - This Season
The Millers started the 23/24 season in fantastic form, defeating Quorn in an FA Cup Extra Preliminary Round Replay and winning their first three league fixtures.
They were eventually defeated by North Ferriby but bounced straight back with victory over Grimsby Borough and then progressed in the FA Cup against Nuneaton Borough and the FA Trophy where they knocked out Coleshill Town.
Rushall Olympic ended the FA Cup dream and Nuneaton Borough got revenge for their Cup defeat by knocking Carlton out of the Trophy.
Back to back wins in the league followed, including one over Belper in mid-October.
Successive home defeats to Newton Aycliffe and Grimsby Borough came in December but they did win both away matches during the festive period, as well as their first one of 2024 at North Ferriby.
They were on a three match unbeaten run until defeat at home to Liversedge during the week, however they remain unbeaten on the road since losing at Consett in late November.
They currently sit 7th in the table with games in hand on most of the division: P 22 W 13 D 1 L 8 F 33 A 29 Pts. 40.
25 of those points have come away from home and only Dunston and Pontefract have a better record in this regard.

Manager Tommy Brookbanks, the most successful in their history returned to the club in May 2019 for another stint in charge, jointly with Mark Harvey.
Leading goalscorers Niall Davie and Alex Hardwick have 8, closely followed by Lamin Manneh with 6.
Former Nailer Greg Tempest has pulled on the blue and yellow 19 times this season.

The Nailers
It's been an inconsistent run for Belper who finished 2023 with a resounding win over Grantham but began the new year with defeat at Ashington before bouncing back against North Ferriby with ten players.
A reversal at home to Brighouse followed but last weekend saw a heroic performance at Newton Aycliffe where the points were secured, once again seeing the match out a player short.
They currently sit in 2nd position with a record of P 24 W 13 D 3 L 8 F 49 A 37 Pts. 42.
At home, Belper have won 6 out of 12 matches played.
Kevin Bastos leads the way with 15 goals. Cam Johnson hit 8 before his transfer to Sheffield and Phil Watt has 6.

Head to Head
This fixture has become a regular one in recent years, having been played 24 times despite the first meeting being as recently as 2007.
Belper enjoyed the better of the early encounters, winning 7 out of the first 11.
This included, in the 2011/12 season a 4-2 Doodson Sports Cup victory which was followed up just over a week later with a 5-4 FA Trophy victory, a match where the Nailers were 2-1 down at half time but battled back in the second half.
After this the Millers went on a five match unbeaten run against us, ending in 2017. Carlton won heavily at the Bill Stokeld in February 2018 but Belper won the next four.
Carlton have been victorious in the last two meetings, both in Gedling. One in April 2022 threatened to derail Belper's promotion push (but didn't) and earlier this season a Cam Johnson goal wasn't enough to stop the points staying in Nottinghamshire.
Overall, from a Belper perspective the record reads: P 24 W 12 D 3 L 9 F 44 A 42.
All of those matches bar the two Cup matches mentioned above have been Step 4 league fixtures.

Form Guide (League)
Belper Town - (26 Dec) DWLWLW (27 Jan)
Carlton Town - (29 Dec) LWLWDL (30 Jan)

Team News
Vice-captain Ben Rhodes is recovering well and maybe in contention to return.
Brodie Litchfield will begin a suspension following his red card at Newton Aycliffe.

Permutations
Stockton's eight point advantage means the Nailers cannot catch them and can only consolidate 2nd spot with victory.
The promotion race, especially for the playoff places is extremely tight and five teams are within two points of Belper meaning a slip up could result in a drop out of the playoff places if results go against us.
Carlton are one of the teams who could leapfrog us with victory, they also have two games in hand on the Nailers.
Their five point lead over 8th placed North Ferriby means they can't drop a place today.

Match details
Belper Town vs. Carlton Town
Northern Premier League Division One - East Division
Saturday, 3rd February 2024 – 3:00pm kick off
Raygar Stadium
Bridge Street
Belper
Derbyshire
DE56 1BA
Tickets: Adults £11, Concessions (11-16 and 60+) & Students £7, U11 with paying adult £0

Follow the match
Live commentary is available with Tom on Radio Belper Town - https://radiobelpertown.mixlr.com
Full coverage on X (Twitter). Team news, HT & FT scores on Facebook.
Match reports to follow on the website and in the Non-League Paper.

Elsewhere in Division One East

Leaders Stockton once again face another team near the top, with Pontefract the visitors in the game of the day (although our 2nd vs. 7th comes close) and it's a battle of the playoff teams at Hebburn as well who welcome Consett.

(15th) Brighouse Town vs. Stocksbridge Park Steels (18th)
(13th) Cleethorpes Town vs. Bridlington Town (14th)
(3rd) Dunston UTS vs. Ashington AFC (11th)
(19th) Grantham Town vs. Grimsby Borough (12th)
(6th) Hebburn Town vs. Consett AFC (5th)
(17th) Ossett United vs. Newton Aycliffe (9th)
(16th) Sheffield FC vs. Liversedge (10th)
(1st) Stockton Town vs. Pontefract Collieries (4th)
(20th) Winterton Rangers vs. North Ferriby (8th)