Two old faces returned to the Tameside stadium for this fixture, Sam Walker returned to Curzon on loan from Stockport County and Nick Haughton who left Curzon to join Fleetwood returned with the visitors Chorley on a season long loan.
On 5 minutes Walker produced a great free kick into the box which was headed across the front of the goal, with Niall Cummins just inches away from getting a touch as Curzon started well.
GOAL: On 13 minutes Chorley who for the first time had put some pressure onto Curzon, won themselves a corner. As the corner was floated in by Adam Blakeman, Josh O’Keefe, unmarked from 12 yards out, headed the ball home into the right hand corner of Cameron Mason’s goal.
Chorley nearly made it 2-0 two minutes later after Haughton delivered a great cross into the box and Josh Wilson just directed his touch wide of the goal but since the goal Chorley started to take control of the game with Curzon just looking to counter attack.
On 28 minutes Curzon should have drawn level, as the ball was played up to Cummins, he played it down to the unmarked Joe Guest on the edge of the Chorley box. Guest struck his shot superbly towards the corner but an equally superb save from Matt Urwin, diving to his right palmed the ball away to safety.
On 36 minutes Curzon were awarded a free kick after Ryan Brooke was brought down, Walker again delivered a quality cross to find Jonathon Hunt, Hunt’s goal-bound header just went wide of Urwin’s goal.
Just on the stroke of half time, Curzon won another free kick which Walker delivered again, this time the ball was won by Chorley’s captain Andy Teague but he directed his header towards his own goal and was relieved to see it hit the corner of Urwin’s crossbar. The ball was then bounced about the box but Curzon failed to find the net with Urwin glad to gather the ball.
Curzon started the second half with more urgency and looked dangerous on the attack, two chances within a minute showed Curzon’s intent, the first chance saw Curzon win a free kick which was taken quickly by Walker to Cummins but he had made his run too early and was flagged offside. The second chance saw Brooke break into the box with defender Matt Challoner coming across, Brooke fell to the ground after the two players came together, the crowd shouted for the penalty but referee Paul Brown waved it away.
Around the hour mark the game went quiet with both sides cancelling each other out, both managers decided to make a change to liven the game up, on 67 minutes it was Chorley’s substitute Marcus Carver who got the chance to put Chorley two up. After being played in and only the keeper to beat his shot from the edge of the box was saved by Mason’s feet.
On 75 minutes Jonathon Hunt was alleged to put his studs first when making a tackle, the referee automatically showed him a yellow then a red card, Hunt protested as he had not been booked before. After checking with his assistant the referee changed it to a yellow card only.
GOAL: On 76 minutes Chorley got their second goal and it came from Curzon old boy Haughton, after picking up the ball outside the box on the right, he went past two defenders with ease and fired it past Mason giving him no chance.
With the game coming to the end the final chance fell to Chorley and substitute Dave Whitham after a good passing move from midfield saw Whitham picking the ball up from 20 yards out, but he hit his effort high and wide.
This was a disappointing result for Curzon who showed good battling effort but just could not break down the solid Chorley back four. Manager John Flanagan pictured above at the post match postmortem.