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Post by hatter_in_macc on Dec 21, 2017 12:28:00 GMT
Oops - Thursday already, and getting this one started had completely slipped my mind!
Anyway, a short jaunt for us on Saturday, thankfully. And to a ground at which we have the opportunity to maintain an unbeaten record - as well as doing a first 'double' of the season... hopefully!
Post all the usual malarkey, and seasonal greetings, here.
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Post by hatter_in_macc on Dec 21, 2017 12:33:36 GMT
In the meantime, here is an updated 'Encore'/'En-cur' for my 'Take Five' on the 'Nash'...
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TAKE FIVE (En-Cur)… Curzon Ashton
By Hatter in Macc
1. A nice short away-trip for us on the last Saturday before Christmas, then!
Indeed so. If the fixtures-computer had to send us on the road so near to the festive season, it could not, in fairness, have been kinder. The Tameside Stadium, at four M60 junctions and under 10 miles away, represents our shortest jaunt of the season - excepting, of course, last month’s hop, skip and a jump to Cheadle Town in the Cheshire Senior Cup!
2. So, ‘Curzon’ Ashton - the only football team to be named after a cinema chain, right?
Not so, I am afraid, movie buffs. The Ashton-under-Lyne club came about in 1963 (initially as Curzon Amateurs) following a merger of two local teams - Ashton Amateurs and Curzon Road Methodists - with the street in question taking its designation from the First Viscount Curzon (1730-1820), whose first name, rather spookily, was Assheton!
And, before you ask, the quirky ‘Nash’ nickname is not used by way of some peculiar pop homage to Kate (ask your dad) or Johnny (ask your grandad). It harks back to a third team from the town, Ashton National (so called because of the nearby National Gas and Engine Oil Company), who folded in 1940 but whose Katherine Street ground was Curzon Ashton’s home before the current one was opened, just under a mile up Richmond Street, in 2005.
3. I guess, given the proximity, that a good few have played for both County and Curzon?
Well, we have a couple of ex-Nashers on our books now, of course - with Sam Walker and Matty Warburton both having arrived in SK3 this summer. Connor Hampson, who has just left us for Altrincham, joined the Hatters from Curzon during February 2017. And former Hatters Richie Baker (at County during 2014/15) and Paul Marshall (2013) have more recently taken their places in our hosts’ midfield from FC United and Alfreton Town, respectively.
Going back a little further in time: sharp-shooting striker Kristian Dennis (2013-15) made the short trip down to Edgeley Park after netting 61 times in 72 games for Curzon; goalkeeper Eric Nixon (1997-99) began his career in OL7; defender Tom Eckersley (2012/13), who by coincidence is now at Ashton United, turned out for the town’s other club on a handful of occasions three seasons ago; and defender Danny Hall (2011), midfielders Paul Ennis (2008/09) and Iain Howard (2013/14), as well as former County Youth player, and, until recently, FC United manager, Karl Marginson, have all subsequently plied their trade with the Nash. Last but not least, Curzon boss John Flanagan, now in his seventh season at the Tameside Stadium helm, was on the EP books for County Reserves in his playing days.
4. Just 48 hours after the Shortest Day - so much of Saturday’s play will be under the lights!
It will - and Curzon and its forerunners have a couple of claims to fame when it comes to floodlight history. The original ‘Nash’, Ashton National, hosted at Katherine Street what was possibly the UK's first properly floodlit match in 1932. The exhibition game against Hyde went ahead at a time when the Football Association was sniffily forbidding its member clubs to light up, and before the powers-that-were at the FA eventually relented following World War Two.
In later years, the Hatters played a floodlit role at Katherine Street, when they sent a side there to help celebrate the current club’s opening of a new set of lights after the end of the 1977/78 season. Curzon that evening fielded a 39-year-old Bobby Charlton - who, despite having stepped down from top-flight football five years earlier, still managed to nab a goal for the hosts. Charlton, incidentally, was no stranger to providing his services for friendly causes back in those playing-twilight days of his - having earlier also guested for County in the mid-70s.
5. And it’s an early opportunity for County to achieve a first ‘double’ of the season!
Or even a ‘treble’, given that we knocked Saturday’s opponents out of the FA Cup at EP five weeks or so after winning our home league match. Let us hope that County can continue an unbeaten record, home and away, against our hosts and leave them… erm, curzon’ and nashin’!
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Post by hatter_in_macc on Dec 22, 2017 9:51:51 GMT
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Post by harrogatehatter on Dec 23, 2017 10:14:45 GMT
Another game where you’d say “we should be winning if we’re going to do anything this season”. I’ll get for a 2-0 county win. Oswell and Ball to score.
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Post by ceefer on Dec 23, 2017 11:52:09 GMT
1-2 County but it will be a close thing. I think Flanagan will have them fired up as they lost last time round. Just hoping no wild tackles come in on Oswell.
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Post by Deleted on Dec 23, 2017 21:30:27 GMT
Not quite sure how that ended up 1-1. If we'd scored half a dozen Curzon could have had no cause for complaint, I guess sometimes it happens. One big plus for me was Stephenson's performance. He seems to be beginning to show us why Gannon brought him to the club. Piss poor referee...again! Oswell was pushed from pillar to post and the cretin stood and watched. Even when Oswell was chopped from behind, he still refused to get his book out.
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Post by ceefer on Dec 23, 2017 21:33:14 GMT
A match of missed opportunities, bad luck and a poor referee. Mantack had a decent game but on 4 occasions crossed the ball into the box far too close to the GK. Why are we not playing McKenna as a sub? He has the speed and ability to put in good crosses. Jason missed a sitter, Thomas hit the post, we hit the crossbar and how soft was the penalty? The juries out until I see the highlights. The first half was dominated by County and we played some decent football,but the second half Curzon got back into it. If we had put away our chances is could have been 4 or 5-1. Great County support today.
Lets hope we can convert against Alfreton.
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Post by ceefer on Dec 29, 2017 18:17:53 GMT
I spoke briefly to Flanagan at the match and he was saying how difficult it is keeping hold of pt players and the fact that their other priority is their more or less full time job. Sounds familiar?
Sometimes I think we expect alot from our players and the sooner we move to full time the better.
Cue an expansion of the commercial department.
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