Curzon Ashton A, Saturday 6th August 2022

[Steve T]

A brief history of a club that might not be very well known to some of you...

Curzon comes from Curzon Road Methodists who merged with Ashton Amateurs in 1963 to form Curzon Amateurs, later Curzon Ashton. The club competed in the Manchester Amateur League then in the Manchester League from 1971 before joining the Cheshire County League in 1978. That league merged with the Lancashire Combination in 1982 to form the North-West Counties League. Curzon spent five years in that before being invited to join the Northern Premier League when it created a second division (the First, naturally). Relegations in 1997 and 1998 put the club back in the feeder leagues.

Promotions in 2000 and 2007 took Curzon back to the Northern Premier League (Division One North). Five successive play-off failures followed (08-12) before promotion to the Premier Division as champions in 2014. That was succeeded the following year by promotion through the play-offs to reach the Northern section of the Conference (when it became the National League). They escaped relegation by three points in 2018 and were in the danger zone again in 2020 when the plug was pulled.

Curzon played at National Park, the former home of the defunct Ashton National FC, before moving to their current home at the new Tameside Stadium in 2005. They've been bottom of the attendance table three times. Typical attendances (without visitors) are in the mid-200s.

Curzon Ashton at the Football Club History Database

For the record:
This will be Banbury's joint earliest start to a league season, the second time on the first Saturday in August. The previous occasion was in 2016 when, also after promotion, they travelled to Basingstoke and won 1-0.

[spiritof86]

Is everyone on holiday or something, I would of thought there would be a little bit of discussion about tomorrow’s big game .
We need to attract a few more posters to this forum and get things moving a bit . Come on puritans , we’re in the big time now

[Steve T]

Aug 5, 2022 22:05:24 GMT 1 spiritof86 said:

Is everyone on holiday or something...

Indeed. There's more activity on Rushden's board than on here.

[spiritof86]

Well I think we’ll take that , noticed the crowd was only 307 , what did we take 100 ?
How do these team survive

[Sparky]

Speaking to a FCUM supporter last week he said their average gate was much around that figure, must have a generous backer.

[Steve T]

They had good numbers of travelling supporters visiting throughout the season, as did Farsley and Bradford PA, two other clubs with modest support.

[geoff95]

Brilliant performance from every player. Jack Stevens ran them ragged and was promptly kicked all over the place. Jay Williams immense. We will hold our own at this level, BUT as Whingy knows, we MUST add to the squad. Two injuries effectively left one sub. The squad is very threadbare

[frog12345]

Aug 7, 2022 8:26:37 GMT 1 geoff95 said:

Brilliant performance from every player. Jack Stevens ran them ragged and was promptly kicked all over the place. Jay Williams immense. We will hold our own at this level, BUT as Whingy knows, we MUST add to the squad. Two injuries effectively left one sub. The squad is very threadbare

We have an excellent team, but no squad. Langers injured, Brown not risked, Reilly left. To be honest we need 4 or 5 additions.
I see the Oxford youngster Tyler Goodrham was just about to go out on loan before an injury kept him in the Oxford squad, one wonders where that loan spell was. Whingy mentioned in his post-match interview that he had another loan player lined up but it was pulled at the last moment.

[Steve T]

Rushden's modest start suggests it won't be worth plundering their squad again...