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Carl aims for title
Story courtesy of
Gresley new boy Carl Rathbone strode into the Moat Ground this week and declared: “Rovers are on their way into the Beazer Midland Division.”
The Tamworth based striker – snapped up this week from Bromsgrove Rovers of the Beazer Premier Division – reckons only bad luck has prevented Rovers from following his home town club – for whom he played a starring role during their Banks’s League championship campaign – up into the higher echelons of Midland non-league football.“Hopefully I can help Gresley to get the promotion they deserve – that’s my aim,” said the 26-year-old who Moat boss Frank Northwood spent several weeks prising away from former Burton Albion boss Bobby Hope, now pulling the strings at Bromsgrove.
“I enjoyed my stay at Bromsgrove – they’re a good club – and I got on very well with Bobby Hope,” said Rathbone.
“But my wife and I have a three-month-old child and family life just doesn’t combine with the amount of travelling you have to do in the Premier Division. That was one of the reasons behind my move to Gresley. But another was that they play good, attractive football – the kind I like to be involved in. Gresley are an up-an-coming club and they’ve been unlucky over the last few seasons. Hopefully I can help them get promotion.
“I am a provider of goals – I like to involve other people in the game. My game is passing and supplying goals – as well as scoring them. I aim to get 20 or 30 a season.
“I like playing good football and Gresley have got a reputation as just that.”
Said Northwood: “It’s been hard work to get Carl from Bromsgrove but obviously he believes. Like we believe, that he’s only going to be out of the Beazer Homes League for a short time. He’s a class player and I’m sure he’ll fit into the set-up very well.”