PREVIEW | Curzon Ashton V Southport FC

Southport return to Emirates FA Cup action this weekend to take on Curzon Ashton.

The Sandgrounders head to the Tameside Stadium with another full week of preparation under the belt, as Liam Watson’s side will hope to continue the vital cup run.

The Nash

Curzon are also entering this game on the back of a league defeat, losing 3-1 against Boston United.

Whilst they have enjoyed a better start than Southport, they currently sit only five places higher up the table, with five points separating the pair.

They kicked off their campaign with a 2-1 win over Darlington, coming from behind to get off to the best possible start.

But since then only two more league wins have followed, suffering mixed form and going on long winless runs between victories.

Like Southport, lack of wins could be pinpointed to a shortage of goals, scoring only nine in the opening 11 games.

Why this is not the worst statistic in the league, they could’ve accumulated more points if they had been more prolific.

An issue behind this could be the lack of a clear goal scorer in the squad, with Hughes, Guest and Crankshaw being the club’s tied top scorers with two.

So far, their league form has them on course for a similar finish to last season, where they finished just a couple of places from the relegation places and just three points ahead of the bottom three.

Of course, none of that is relevant heading into this weekends cup tie.

Like Southport they’ll be hoping to put league form behind them and build on a 2-1 win over Radcliffe in the previous round which got them to this point.

Last Season

The last time the two met, back in February, Southport came out 3-1 winners, whilst it was all square in the corresponding fixture at Curzon, finishing 2-2.

Both Liam Watson and Curzon’s long serving manager, John Flanagan, know how important cup games can be and both will be relieved to have another break from the league and escape the rising pressure in order to focus on securing cup run.