Monday 17th September
FA Trophy 1st Qualifying Round Replay
Curzon Ashton 3 Goole 3 AET FT 2-2 CA win 4-3 on pens HT: 1-0 Att: 106
Evans 26, Watson 77, Walker 120: Russell 58, 75, 117
from Tameside Stadium
This was a game too far. A lot of groundhoppers appear to have no limits, doing four five grounds a week without a glimmer of remorse of self consciousness. They don’t seem to suffer the same symptoms of the human condition, like the rest of us, such as tiredness, lack of money, other commitments or laziness. Or self loathing and regret, which is what I had on entering the Manchester area on a Monday night after a tiring day at work. A just under 40 mile journey on a week night in Manchester traffic had me wondering what the hell I was playing at. The Tameside stadium was going nowhere and it could’ve waited. What’s more, it was a cup game and given my state of mind was absolutely fated to go to extra time and penalties, to make sure I was home past midnight.
Curzon Ashton came into being in 1963, when Curzon Road and Ashton Amateurs merged. The merger produced Curzon Amateurs which then later became Curzon Ashton. They are one of a pair of non league teams in the East Manchester town of Ashton under Lyne, the other being the much Older Ashton United, in a division higher.
They moved to their £4m Tameside Stadium in 2005/06 from their previous home, National Park. It’s quite a high spec new build for their level, like a deluxe Weaver Stadium. The main stand holds 527 seats and the covered stand opposite holds 1,100. A nice extra touch was the extra bits of terracing down both sides of the main stand and behind the goals, enclosed by railings on either side.
Something I struggled with, while standing on the covered terrace opposite the main stand, was the four letters spelled out in white seats among the blue ones in the main stand. I was expecting CAFC but it didn’t look like those letters at all. I eventually made it out to be TMBC? Turzon Mashton Bootball Club? What was going on? Then the horror descended as I realised that it stood for Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council. What staggering arrogance of the council to have insisted on its initials, over the initials of the club that play there. The council should be ashamed of themselves. I could almost understand a private company advertising in this way, but a public company? Disgraceful. They need a fly-by spray paint by a guerrila fan to re-paint the seats in the main stand CAFC.
It was a good cup tie that, as predicted, went to extra time. Curzon came from behind in normal time and again right at the end of the 120 minutes and won on penalties.
The Groundhog 