After drawing 1-1 away to York on Saturday, Curzon secured their place in the First Round proper of the FA Cup after defeating the Minstermen 2-1 at the Tameside Stadium in the Fourth round qualifying replay. The Nash will now face an away tie against Midland Football League Premier side, Westfields in the next round.
Goals from captain, Alex Brown and leading goal scorer, Niall Cummins ruled out Richard Brodie's earlier strike, sealing the win and cementing a historic night in the club's history.
With the Nash fans in fine voice from the start the stage was set at the Tameside Stadium for a magical FA Cup night. However things didn't start well for John Flanagan's men as York took a 1-0 lead inside five minutes. Brodie found a loose ball 25 yards out and hit a fierce half volley over Hakan Burton and into the net. The worst possible start for Curzon.
Despite going a goal behind the Nash reacted excellently, dominating the game across the park. Curzon's first chance fell to Chris Rowney 10 minutes in, his long range effort flew just wide of the post. Further efforts from James Baillie, Luke Clark and and Jordan Wright all came close to levelling the tie. Promising signs for the Nash.
Curzon's best chance of finding an equaliser came just after the half hour mark. A superb ball from the left was met by Cummins in the box, however his header from point black range was expertly saved by Luke Simpson in the York goal.
With just under five minutes left in the first half, Curzon's pressure was finally rewarded. After the visitors failed to clear their lines from a corner, Brown nailed the ball through a cluster of bodies and into the back of the net, leaving the score 1-1 as the teams went down the tunnel for half time. A well deserved equaliser for Curzon after a dominant first half.
When the teams reappeared for the second half Flanagan would have be hoping for more of the same in the second half. Consequently this is what his side produced as five minutes after the restart Curzon were awarded a penalty as the referee pointed straight the spot after a clumsy tackle on Cummins in the box.
Cummins stepped up to take the penalty and despite missing from the spot initially, he made no mistake at the second attempt, slotting home the rebound to the delight of the Curzon faithful. The Nash now had a 2-1 lead and were less than 40 minutes from the FA Cup first round.
Curzon continued to dominate the game and matched their national league opponents for every tackle and every ball. The visitors looked almost bewildered as the second half went on and were struggling to get any sort of grip on the game.
With 65 minutes played Burton was forced into his first real save of the night when he pushed away a Daniel Nti strike to safety.
The Nash made their first sub of the night with just over 15 minutes to play as Iain Howard replaced Rowney in midfield. Flanagan then made a second change 8 minutes later with Ryan Hall replacing Jordan Wright out wide.
With five minutes to play York began to hit the Curzon penalty area with a number of searching long balls and throw ins. In spite of the pressure the Nash defence stood strong, just as they had done over both ties and diluted any chance of a York equaliser.
As the game entered four minutes of stoppage time substitute, Ryan Hall had a chance to send the Nash into the First Round proper in style, however after a superb solo
run on the counter his shot was saved by the keeper.
The referee blew the final whistle and the excitement and jubilation of the Nash supporters poured onto the pitch as the fans ran on to the field to celebrate with the players, who had written themselves into Curzon folklore after a special night at the Tameside Stadium.
The win meant Curzon were in the First Round for the first time since 2008, where they went on to beat Exeter 3-2. Flanagan and his side will be hoping for a similar scenario as they travel to Hereford based side, Westfields in the next round.
Curzon will look to transfer their cup form into the league, as the Nash travel to Brackley this Saturday.