Keeping up pressure on teams above
THE Tameside mafia arrived in their “hordes” on Saturday and the first thing to note was the total lack of police – her majesty’s constabulary were nowhere to be seen.
After recent home games I was under the impression we were all hooligans that needed watching.
We got into EP safely and after a quick pie settled in to watch, what on paper should be a comfortable home win.
The 3-1 final score suggests that’s just what happened and we did deserve the points, but Curzon were no way the worst team we’ve seen this season.
They had chances, and decent chances at that, but with Danny Lloyd back in form up front and Michael Clarke performing heroics at the back, there was never a doubt that the three points would stay with County.
I have no idea how Danny scored either of his goals, both came out of nothing and took me and Curzon by surprise.
The first was the result of some dithering by the Nash keeper and defender, allowing Danny to get a toe to the ball and we were one up.
The same for his second, a throw in, a defender not being aware of his surroundings and the ball is again in the back of the net.
In between was a moment of class from Michael Clarke.
Mark Ross had another moment to forget, he was robbed of the ball which left the Ashton striker one on one with Ian Ormson. The striker did everything right, dropped his shoulder, dummied Ian and struck the ball towards the far corner. How Clarkey got back to clear the ball was commitment personified and just as important as one of Danny’s goals.
Harry Winter had a great debut and it looks like Jim has found the replacement for Gary Stopforth we’ve all been craving.
He played some great passes and didn’t mind getting physical when the situation called for it and there was very little argument when he was awarded the man of the match, even after Danny Lloyd had scored two and then laid on the third for Jimmy Ball.
The only cause for concern was a lack of discipline as the game petered out. We sat back, allowed Ashton to attack and then conceded a late penalty.
But I’m nit picking, we deserved the win and the pressure is still on those teams above us who are bound to be looking over their shoulders at us with a touch of concern.