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Curzon Ashton Res finally moved
away from 5th spot climbing to fourth with this, in the end
convincing win. With a massive downpour at 6pm the game was put in
doubt but with the excellent drainage and work from the grounds men
the referee Mr. Kevin Harkin decided to start the game and to
reconsider if it rained again. It didn’t rain again although Barnton
may now be wishing that it did as Curzon cruised to a comfortable
4-0 win in the second half.
Again the reserves made some changes, starting his first game was
Andrea Russo who came to this country only 6 weeks ago from
Australia but he only lasted 45 minutes due to a horrendous tackle
which left him with a very swollen ankle. Chris Ball continued to
play as he did last Saturday and in came Josh Mitten for a much
needed game. As always with the heavy rain the strong winds came
and Curzon opted to play into the wind first half and by rights
should have put the game to bed by half time. Barnton chose the
knock long and squeeze method of playing football but although they
got the ball forward a lot they never really had a good decent shot
on target. After twenty minutes when Curzon settled they started to
hit Barnton on the break and some crisp passing movement through
midfield resulted in some good chances but Curzon were unable to
take them, Josh Mitten was first to find himself in the 6 yard box
with only the keeper to beat but he thought he was offside and
hesitated and the chance went begging as keeper Andrew Hewitt closed
the ball down. Then Jamie Byrne broke into the box, beat the keeper
but instead of slotting into the empty net with his right foot opted
to come back onto his left to find his chance gone but he did manage
to square it across the box to Jordan Leach who had the chance but
he dragged the ball wide into the side netting finally the fourth
chance fell to Ben Richardson who again only had the keeper to beat
but again Hewitt did well to come out quickly to close the angle and
block the shot.
In the second half Barnton played a lot better as they knew that
humping the ball up field was not going to get them anywhere but now
with the wind advantage Curzon always looked the side in control and
the more likely to score although Keeper Hewitt was doing a good job
in keeping Curzon at bay on his own. Josh Mitten had two half
chances, a quick turn and shot which was well held and he weren’t
too far off with a header following Ben Richardson Cross. But the
goal did come and it was a clever goal by Jamie Byrne, Ben
Richardson yet again delivered a great cross which beat the Barnton
defence and found Byrne with his back to goal and he then cushioned
his header to go backwards over the stranded keeper into the net.
Once this goal went in Barnton heads dropped and Curzon were in
control, top scorer Johnny Sarcevic came on for the injured Chris
Ball and one of the first things he did was to rise at the far post
to head home a Ryan Burgess cross to make it two nil. Dane Buller on
at half time for the injured Russo was a constant threat down the
right and not long after Curzon’s second he was played in by Byrne,
he went past his defender and cut into the box and laid a pass
across the box to the final sub of the night, Aiden Derwent who had
the simple task of side footing home. Curzon then wrapped up the
game when they pounced onto a Barnton mistake, having being awarded
a free kick just outside their own box Paul Allen poorly passed the
ball to one of his team mates which was intercepted by Buller who
then simply played in Sarcevic who moved into the box and finished
easily. Barnton although four nil down showed some character and in
the last five minutes continued to press forward and produced some
good movement but their luck of the night was summed up when Mike
Sandbach saw his only effort of the game come back off the post into
Darren Riddett’s arms.
The reserves now start a very busy two months playing two games per
week to finish off the season including the final on the 2nd April.
This Saturday they travel to Trafford in the league, KO 3pm.
Team: (Goal Scorer(s) in bold), Darren Riddett, Ryan Burgess, Andrea
Russo (Dane Buller), Jordan Gill, Daniel Toft, Chris Ball (Jonathan
Sarcevic (2)) , Ben Richardson, Ben Blease (c), Josh Mitten,
Jamie Byrne, Jordan Leach (Aiden Derwent).
Subs not used: Keith Jones (GK)
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