Who are ya? - Arnold Town

Notts County step up their pre-season campaign tomorrow with their first game on British soil against Arnold Town of the Northern Counties East league. The match takes place at the Eagle Valley Stadium between Arnold and Calverton (details about travel etc. can be found here) and kicks off at 7:45pm. Notts have promised to send a strong team to the match and fans can expect to see the majority Ian McParland's squad ahead of their League Two campaign. The Magpies have already been narrowly beaten 3-2 by Universitatea Craiova and won 3-0 against SV Austria Salzburg this summer.

The Club

Name - Arnold Town
Founded - 1989
Nickname - Eagles
Ground - Eagle Valley Complex
Manager - Andy Muldoon

Arnold Town FC were formed in 1989 following the merger of Arnold FC and Arnold Kingswell. The club played games at Gedling Road, the former home of Arnold FC, and have progressed through the non-league pyramid since their formation. They now find themselves in the Northern Counties East Premier alongside the likes of Long Eaton United, Shirebrook Town and Scarborough Athletic, the club formed from the ashes of Scarborough. They finished a credible 6th last season as Mickleover Sports, who former Notts man Dan Martin plays for, won the title ahead of Long Eaton, Selby Town and Bridlington Town. Scarborough Athletic and Rainsworth Miners Welfare were promoted to the Premier from Division One. Arnold's best ever FA Cup campaigns are when they reached the First Round and faced Bristol Rovers at Gedling Road, while they also took Port Vale to a replay in 1977 after a 0-0 draw at Gedling Road, while they have also reached the 5th Round of the FA Vase.

After playing at Gedling Road for more than 50 years the club were forced out by the council and had to built their new stadium, the Eagle Valley Complex on arable land between Arnold and Calverton. It has one stand holding around 700 people and lots of standing room around the pitch, it's grand opening last season attracted over 200 people and around 600 saw Derby County manager Nigel Clough officially open the Eagle Valley last week as the Rams beat Arnold 5-1. They were also heavily beaten at the weekend as Carlton Town ran away 5-0 victors.

The Squad

Andy Muldoon is the current manager of Arnold Town and he hopes to lead the side to promotion to the UniBond League this season, although newly promoted Scarborough Athletic and Bridlington Town are the favourites for the title. Lee Broster has seen 10 goals fly past him in 2 games and the 'keeper will be hoping to stop the Magpies having such an easy route to goal while Chris Freestone, who started his career at Arnold and boasts a Football League career that took in Middlesbrough, Northampton Town and Shrewsbury Town, will be hoping to score the goals at the other end for Arnold.