UNDER the floodlights it was Curzon Ashton who booked their passage through to the second round of the Emirates FA Cup in what was an intense affair at the Tameside Stadium. Ryan Dobney was there for Quays News.
A brace from Adam Morgan and a Niall Cummings effort was enough to seal the Nash’s place in the next round.
Westfields threatened early on, enjoying sustained periods of possession, with number 10 Dan Polan fresh off scoring a brace at the weekend, picking up decent positions in the hole.
Yet it was the hosts who had the best of the chances early on, with Iain Howard hitting the side netting, teasing certain sections of the ground who thought it was in.
Each team showed no hangover having played Saturday, and the frantic nature of the game continued when Adam Morgan rounded the keeper, pouncing on some rash defending, only to see
his effort blocked.
The home side’s pressure continued, and after having previously lacked conviction in front of goal, it was Adam Morgan who broke the deadlock on 23 minutes, after the former Liverpool man’s low shot deflected passed the keeper.
With Westfields dropping deeper after Morgan’s opener, offensive right-back James Baillie came close for the hosts, testing the goalkeeper Keiron Blackburn.
The away side found themselves in trouble after attempting to play out from the back, but Luke Clarke was unable to punish the mistake.
Morgan struck again on the 33rd minute, with a left foot strike curling into the net, past an out of position Blackburn in goal.
The second half very much picked up where the first left off, continuing the end to end nature of the
game.
The Midlands side, however, will be disappointed they did not half the deficit shortly after the break,
The dangerous Polan latched on to a loose back pass attempt from Morgan, only to see his one-on-one effort saved well by goalkeeper Haka Burton.
The fouls began to mount up for the sides in the mid stages of the second half with each side having
representatives in the referee’s notebook, following some rash challenges.
Westfields came closest to punishing the totting up of fouls, but midfielder Craig Jones saw his free kick land on the roof of the net.
Although there were several divisions between the sides, the score line did not reflect such. After some heavy periods of possessions, Morgan should have seized his hat-trick after running through one-on-one, but saw his shot strike the post.
But where Morgan failed, his strike partner and captain, Niall Cummins did not – demonstrating his acute finishing prowess lifting his effort over the diving keeper, to all but seal qualification.
There was time however time for Westfields to grab a late conciliation goal in stoppage time through substitute Nick Haarhy, but it was too little too late as referee Anthony Backhouse blew for full time, after the four added minutes.
Two goal hero Adam Morgan said that the result was massive for the club financially.
He said: “It is the FA Cup, hopefully anything can happen we are going to go into the next round as underdogs, but we will go in full of confidence.”
Meanwhile, Curzon Ashton manager John Flanagan has said maintaining the club’s league status is of
paramount priority.
He said: “We need to make sure we are in this division.
“It is a very tough league we are in this year, we have got to sort our home out which has been poor.
“Ultimately we said FA Cup, but we need to do well in the league.”
Nevertheless, Flanagan will be pleased with the efforts of his side, and will hope the teams FA Cup
form can be taken into league games.
Curzon Ashton will play the winners of AFC Wimbledon vs Bury at home, who play their first-round
replay on Tuesday.
Man of the Match: Adam Morgan.
By Ryan Dobney
@ryan_dobney
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