Southport 2 Curzon Ashton 1

Southport stretched the unbeaten run to 8 league games with a hard fought 2-1 victory against a Curzon Ashton side who once again belied their lowly position in the table.

Two first half Jordan Archer goals his 8th and 9th of the sesaon and his 32nd and 33rd overall, which moves him into our top ten goalscorers, gave the home side a comfortable 2-0 lead at half time. The first was a great finish after fine work by Jack Bainbridge and the second a tap in after Connor Woods put it on a plate for him. Archer having his best game for some time was a real threat all afternoon and great to see him back on form. We expected Curzon to come out strongly in the second period and so it proved but the home rearguard were handling the threat well.

The visitors goal came from a bizarre penalty award which the referee initially waved away but following extensive protests by the visiting players he consulted his linesman and eventually awarded a penalty. The ref was five yards away, the linesman 25 yards away and the near side linesman who was much better placed gave nothing. Strange but true.

After that the game became very feisty with some tasty tackles going in and a few yellow cards being waved around.

It was no surprise that a red card was eventually shown as Connor Dimaio launched himself at Josh Hmami which sparked a mass melee and saw Liam Watson also get a yellow card.

A bad tempered end which we all felt could have been avoided but Southport hung on for the three very welcome points.

Southport: McMillan, Quansah, Anson (C), C.Doyle, Carberry (Hmami 72), J.Doyle, Oliver (Munro 72'), Bainbridge, Woods, Heath (MIles 72), Archer
Subs: Goudie, Evans, 
 
Curzon: Renshaw, Poscha, Matthews, Hall, Walker, Hayhurst, Waring, Braithwaite, Richards, Mahon(C) Barton
Subs: Dimaio, Peers, Hancock, Hobson, Jessop 
 
GOALS: 1-0 Archer (21'), 2-0 Archer (38') 2-1 Walker pen (62 )
 
Cards: Waring Curzon, Carberry Southport, Archer Southport, Matthews Curzon 
 
Attendance:1345 (46 away)

Report later.