Curzon away. One of the Cups

[kev panther]

cant see us being to bothered if we lose this one, Semi Final if we win !!!

Defeat 1-3

sorry

[butler]

~~~~ Ditto ~~~~~

I'll go with same:

Curzon Ashton 3 Skelmersdale United 1

Attendance: 188

Weather: Misty.

[forever]

Curzon 1 Skem Utd 3
Oh yee of little faith Butler and Kev

[wilko]

2-1 TO CURZON

[smithstreetkid]

2-1 to the boys in blue or red

[swampys]

3-1 to curzon, not bothered about cup games i just want to get out of this league !!

[kev panther]

obvious got this one wrong, seems the lads wanted to put the record straight after saturday, full strength side and the winner 8 mins into injury time.
Tommy doesnt like losing !!

March 13th at Home to Belper in Semi Final

Well done to the blues !!!

[wilko]

Nice one!

[chrisdrew]

1-0 skem win

[kev panther]

Match: UniBond Presidents Cup Home to Skelmersdale United
Date: Tuesday 14 December 2009
HT: 1-1
FT: 2-3
Attendance: 100
Goal Scorers: Michael Norton 2
Next Match: Saturday 19 December 2009 Home to FC Halifax Town Kick-off 3.00pm - UniBond League
Curzon were knocked out of the UniBond President’s Cup in the 95th minute, but all the talk after the game was not about the 5 goal thriller but about the performance of the match referee. Although criticism of the officials is not allowed 100 spectators cannot always be wrong in what they see and it spoilt was what a good game. Curzon came into this game making seven changes from Saturday’s 4-4 draw with Clitheroe, making their debuts were keeper Matthew Cooper, signed as cover from Glossop North End and on loan defender Spencer Harris from Huddersfield Town. The other changes saw James Ogoo, Luke Mack & Danny Warner start & manager Gary Lowe drafted in Michael O’Connor who got himself 90 minutes with the reserves on Saturday and James Constantine from the youth team to give him some 1st team experience.
In the first ten minutes Skem were the more threatening side going forward and they forced three consecutive corners which forced Curzon to defend in numbers, Curzon were given a warning from Skem when they worked a training ground corner involving a short corner with two attackers & Curzon only sent one man out to mark it and on 10 minutes & Skem’s fourth corner Curzon yet again failed to pick up on the short corner & were punished when Martin Crowder was allowed to loft his shot into the top left hand corner of Coopers net unmarked. Curzon’s reaction to this early set back was superb and they slowly got back into the game & started to dominate on the quarter of an hour mark, Michael Norton just failed to draw Curzon level when he misjudged his header at the back post following a cross from the left, a minute later a great move ended with Andrew Lundy getting off a left foot effort which keeper Ryan McMahon just kept hold of. After 20 minutes the games settles down & Curzon look in command an effort by Luke Mack from 18 yards out goes wide, then a great kick up field by Cooper finds Lundy, Lundy does well to hold off his marker who was pulling him all over the place to get a shot off but McMahon isn’t troubled. Skelmersdale then had a good chance of their own, following a free kick into the box Mark Houghton rose unchallenged to head just wide. Curzon’s dominance finally paid off when the quick thinking Captain Dave Birch played in Warner after being awarded a free kick on the left touchline, Warner cleverly skipped past his marker & delivered a great low cross to the far post where it was met by Norton who side footed home past McMahon. Skelmersdale were now forced to defend deep but on the 42th minute they were gifted a great chance after a mix up with Adam Jones & Chris Curley which allowed a cross to come in from the right but Ryan Wade snatched at his chance and it went wide of the post.
In the second half Curzon continued to press with Norton creating a couple of half decent efforts then on 55 minutes Mack does well to play the ball into Lundy, Lundy picks out Norton on the right hand side and then gets himself into the box for the return but a latch ditch tackle denies Lundy yet again.
On 75 minutes Curzon were punished for a very soft foul on the edge of the box, the assistant referee flagged for the foul which was clearly outside the box but the referee immediately awarded a penalty, after much debating with referee Capt Michael White stepped up to blast past Cooper to put Skem back in the lead.
Matthew Cooper on his debut was having a reasonable quiet game but he was called upon to dive to his left to push out a shot after a mistake by Warner allowing Skem’s forward to get a shot off. For the last 15 minutes Curzon attacked Skem time & time again the best effort coming from Norton when Adam Jones did brilliantly with a great header to get the ball to Norton, Norton surrounded by two defenders, used his strength and got off a great shot off from the edge of the box, which looked goal bound only to see it be tipped onto the crossbar by McMahon.
For all their hard work it looked like Curzon were not to get the reward that they deserved but in the 2nd minute of the 4 minutes added on they were awarded a penalty as the last defender handled the ball after a good pressure from Lundy, the ref chose not to send the defender off which incensed the crowd but Norton kept his nerve to draw Curzon deservedly level. With the four minutes added time already up the referee allowed the game to continue and Curzon switched off for a split second but just enough to allow Karl Ledsham to arrive at the back post, unmarked to head home. A massive blow to Curzon who didn’t deserve to lose this game & who should of comfortably booked their place in the semi-final of this cup. But now they will have to pick themselves very quickly up for the visit of FC Halifax this coming Saturday.

Match Report by Dave Jones