Despite Storm Claudia’s best efforts, the NPL Midlands almost managed a complete schedule last week. Carlton took advantage and continued their excellent away record this season with a 3-2 win against Mickleover at the weekend. That win was the Millers’ seventh on the road already this year.
At home the league leaders are similarly impressive but not as much as on their travels. Indeed, in their last home game, Carlton were beaten 1-0 by Coleshill, their second defeat at home this year. Having bounced back from that loss at the first time of asking, the home support will be hoping for some more points this weekend as they welcome the Royals from Sutton Coldfield Town.
The Royals have two wins and three draws from their eight away contests this season. The visitors score goals no doubt. Only one side has scored more than them in the league but the issue is at the other end of the field where the Sutton Coldfield defence is only ahead of one other side in terms of goals conceded. They’ve been involved in some high scoring games coming out on top in a 5-3 win against AFC Rushden and Diamonds but on the wrong end of a 4-2 contest against St Neots. Just eight games ago, The Royals were at risk of being cut adrift but some valuable wins and a battling draw against Mickleover improved that position to 16th but that’s now only a point above the drop zone.