Curzon Ashton 0 Southport 0

They say the sign of a decent team is not losing when you don’t play your best and this was a case in point.

The first half saw a series of Curzon attacks that only the alert ‘keeping of Cam Mason, returning to Curzon for the first time, managed to keep the score at 0-0 at half time. Southport were second best in the first half. The visitors best chance coming when Connor Woods fired just wide but it was the home team who crated the best openings.

The biggest cheer of the first half came when the referee awarded Southport a free kick after a series of free kicks had been awarded to the home side.

The 41st minute brought confusion to everyone as Curzon thought they had scored. The assistant referee flagged that the ball had crossed the line but not before the referee had blown for a free kick, it wasn’t clear what was going on but Southport survived

Liam Watson didn’t look happy as he made his way to the tunnel at half time!

The second half was much improved as Southport changed shape and came out looking much sharper.

Marcus Carver fired just wide on 51 minutes then picked up a yellow card when nobody was anywhere near him, one of several strange decisions for both sides.

Curzon were reduced to 10 men when Jack Dunn was sent off after a lunge at Carver.

The game started to get quite feisty as Curzon were trying their best to get a Southport player sent off to even the numbers up.

Jack Bainbridge went closest to giving Southport the lead seeing a header cleared off the line in the 67th minute. Archer also went close for the visitors.

Despite the numerical disadvantage Curzon continued to look dangerous and Mason had to be alert again to keep the score at 0-0 late on.

Much improved in the second half but unable to break the deadlock.

Curzon have had a few good results this season and looked a good team and in the end Southport were glad to come away with the point that keeps the unbeaten run going and 7th place in the table.

It was the 500th league game we have drawn as a NL team.

Southport are back in action on Bank Holiday Tuesday when Farsley Celtic visit Haig Avenue, Kick Off 3pm