When the term over the hill is used with regard to Curzon Ashton it has nothing to do with the age of the players or the club’s declining fortunes. It is, in fact, being used in its literal sense.
As of August the Blues will be turning their back on their home county of Lancashire to play their football east of the Pennines. That means not only a succession of Roses clashes but trips to deepest Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
It makes no difference whether you apportion the blame to bad luck or bad play, Curzon were in the wrong lace at the wrong time. They finished 20th in the UniBond League, above Warrington Town and Atherton LR, and the North West Counties League had room for only two clubs.
They blues were in a grey area. As one of the most easterly clubs playing west of the Pennines it was to them that Lady Luck handed the short straw.
Relegation to the Northern Counties (East) League was, in fact, the final act in a tragedy that had begun 12 months earlier. Ironically, when the 1995-96 season finished, the Blues were celebrating their most successful campaign since becoming founder-members of the UniBond League’s first division in 1997. Under the guidance of former Warrington boss Derek Brownbill they had finished fourth and were tipped to go up the following year. However, within a month, the first cracks began to appear.
In mid-June, Brownbill announced his intention to take over at Runcorn. He gave travel problems as his reason saying: “I feel it isn’t right that I should be bringing players from the Warrington area to make up the majority of the team in Ashton-under-Lyne.
“I believe Curzon should rely on Manchester players, and for me to bring them in I would have to live on the doorstep.”
An angry Stuart Kay, then Curzon chairman threatened legal action. However, by July matters had settled down, and Vauxhall Motors manager Terry McLean was installed at National Park. Mirroring Brownbill’s actions of the previous summer, he brought virtually the entire squad from his previous club.
Yet, as the Blues began training and McLean began to speak of continuing a run that had taken Vauxhall from the West Cheshire League to the top flight of the NWCL, more problems were in the offing.
Only days into the new season a long-standing dispute surfaced when Stuart Kay was ousted as chairman. Incredibly, the players seemed unaffected by the boardroom ructions and Curzon got off to a great start. Playing attractive football they went through their first eight games unbeaten and were third in the table when the next bombshell exploded.
Ten minutes after their first defeat, a 1-0 reverse at the hands of Atherton LR on September 21, McLean announced his resignation. Suddenly, a club that had once looked a model of stability was looking for its third manager in as many months.
The committee reacted by appointing Dave Denby, the man who had led Ashton United to great success in 1992. But there was to be no repeat. Mclean’s contingent returned to Liverpool en-masse and Denby was left to fight a difficult and ultimately futile holding action.
Despite all his efforts, Curzon fell down the table like a stone, and at the end of March Denby quit. Clearly dispirited by his failure to turn things round he said: “I honestly couldn’t do anymore. I tried everything I knew. I’m absolutely devastated but perhaps a new face at the helm might be able to find some sort of way round things that I couldn’t.”
That new face was former Mossley, Hyde and Glossop boss Ged Coyne, but there was no escaping the inevitable. More traumas were to follow, but they didn’t stem purely from relegation. The club had long been prepared for the drop. What they never expected was to find themselves in the NCEL.
It may have been ill-founded complacency but the prevalent feeling as that Glossop North End, a Derbyshire club, would be shunted sideways. But then some began to ask why the NWCL should sacrifice one of its founder members to accommodate a club that had walked out ten years before.
League officials hotly denied such sentiments, insisting they would rigidly adhere to the rulebook. Both roads led to the same destination. In spite of full support from the UniBond League and protestations from National Park chief executive Harry Twamley, the Northern Joint Liaison voted 3-1 that the Blues should join the NCEL.
Curzon immediately appealed to the FA and began a massive campaign to canvass support. Letters went to every club in the NWCL and NCEL as well as to sports minister Tony Banks, Ashton MP Robert Sheldon and FA chief executive Graham Kelly.
Harry Twamley made an emotional plea on BBC Radio Manchester and generated some lively letters in the sports pages of the Ashton Reporter. Vowing to fight to the end, he commented: If the worst comes to the worst, we’re not just going to fold up after all these years. But I’m sure membership of the NCEL would be a slow death sentence.”
Ultimately it took three members of the FA Pyramid Committee 20 minutes to reject the appeal. The NWCL then turned down an application to join their second division, saying it had been lodged after the April 1 deadline.
A subdued Harry Twamley countered: “I don’t believe the ruling was in the best interests of the sport but the feeling at Curzon now is that we’ve got to get on with it. We are not going to allow our club to go under although we are plainly going to face great difficulties.”
It remains to be seen what the future holds, but Curzon are planning to make the most of it. Keen to put themselves at the heart of the community they already field a string of junior sides. Plans are well advanced to develop National Park as a multi-use centre.
Club chairman Harry Galloway summed up the mood at the annual dinner when he said: “We have some great players in the uncer-17s’ side and I can’t wait to see them in the first team. The other junior sides are winning lots of cups as well.
“There’s a lot of good things going on here and I, personally, am very excited about the future.”