‘It’s still in our hands - Carlton management duo reflect on title race as Anstey Nomads close gap

The Millers have lost each of their last three matches, including a 6-0 demolition in midweek against second-placed Anstey Nomads. On Saturday, they were beaten 3-0 at home by Loughborough Students.

Gafar Abari netted a brace after Jonty Bouch put Loughborough ahead just before the hour mark, spoiling what was a historic day for the club as they broke their home league attendance record, with 486 at the Bill Stokeld Stadium.

“It’s been a very tough week, and the squad has taken a bit of a knock confidence-wise,” Harvey said after the game. 

“It’s our job to get that back going. We lacked that bit of quality with the wind behind us in the first half, and I think if we got our noses in front, we’d have got that confidence back, but it didn’t fall for us today,” Clerke added.

With Anstey looking unstoppable as of late, winning each of their last six, including a dominant 4-0 win over fellow play-off side Basford United on Saturday, they have the form going into the final five games.

However, Harvey stressed that the title is still in their hands, and has backed his players to come out on the other side.

“I’ve had people saying to me for months that we’d won the league, and I kept telling them that we’d won nothing,” he said.

“We still had to play Anstey twice, and they had plenty of games in hand, which, fair play to them, they’ve won, and then a couple of off-par performances for us have made it tight.

“It’s still in our hands with five games to go, and if you’d have offered that at the start of the season, you’d have taken it. 

“We have to dust ourselves down and go again, and I have faith that the lads will knuckle down.”

Regardless of whether Carlton wins the league or not, the worst they can do is a second-placed finish, which would guarantee home advantage in the play-offs.

“That’s great, but we’re here to win it,” Harvey added. “It’s still in our hands, and if we want it bad enough, we will win it.”