Nottinghamshire’s Senior Cup came to a conclusion last night as Newark and Sherwood came out on top against last season’s winners Carlton Town.
Carlton Town came into the final having had recent success in the tournament in the last few years, but it was Newark and Sherwood who made the stronger start as they went into half-time 2-0 up through a brace from Kieran Cummings.
The second half ended in a flurry of late action as Nat Wilson pulled an equaliser back for Carlton, before Luke White looked to have done enough to help his side lift the trophy with a strike in the 89th minute to make it 3-1.
The drama wasn’t over however as Dean Freeman pulled a late goal back for Carlton in the 90th minute.
A third goal wasn’t to come for Carlton however as Newark held on to claim all the spoils.
Mick Garton, Chairman at Carlton Town, thinks the final was one match too far for his side.
He says: “In the run up to last night we basically had 10 cup finals to try and stay in the league, and I think it was one game too much for us mentally.
“We’ve been playing Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday for a number of weeks, but I won’t make excuses for it as Newark deserve a lot of credit.
“We shot ourselves in the foot with conceding two early goals. We did well to get back into the game, and maybe if we got to extra time we could have gone on to win as Newark looked a bit leggy towards the end.
“Now the season is over we’ll need to wait whether we’ll continue to play in the North East League or the Midlands League, and of course we want to be back playing locally”.
Both sides will now look to prepare for the 2023-24 season, and with players holding day jobs in the lower leagues alongside their football, there will be expected changes to squads come the start of the new campaign.
