Mahon acknowledges the challenges that the new season brings

Curzon Ashton are all set to start off their National League campaign against Needham Market FC on Saturday, August 10. The Nash had a mixed bag of results in their pre-season campaign, but manager Craig Mahon insists that he is happy with what he saw from the team in the games.

The team finished seventh in the Vanarama National League North last season, narrowly losing out in the play-offs at the hands of Chorley. They will be looking to improve on that and seek a promotion. However, veteran player and coach of Curzon Ashton is well-aware of the competition that he is going to face in the League. While they will be favourites against Needham Market, Mahon is not going to risk taking his opponents lightly. 

“I think I said it last year. There’s no easy games in this league, there’s no games that you should go into thinking that, ‘we’re going to win this, we should get something from this.’ I think the first game of the season, its a level playing field, no one knows, who is who, they probably don’t know much about us and likewise about them, but we got to go and do what we do.” said the manager when talking about the opening day fixture against new-comers Needham Market.

Craig Mahon is a player-manager and he is instrumental to their success next season. The 35-year-old can score goals and his presence in the middle certainly brings in a sense of composure. “Personally, I’ve definitely got ambitions on and off the field because I still want to play and I still want to make an impact in the team, obviously I know when I have to know when it’s the right time to put myself in and take myself out and so I have goals personally,” said the manager when asked if he had personal goals for the upcoming season. 

Curzon Ashton scored the second-fewest goals among all teams in the National Leagu’s top ten standings last season. That is one area where they have to work on as the other sides could exploit their lack of clincality and punish them for it. Manager Mahon confirmed that he is aware of the difficulty in the league this season, but he believes that his players have the heart to play out against any opponent. 

Speaking about the upcoming season, Mahon said,“Listen we know what this league is about, its probably stronger than its ever been, some of the full-time, well the hybrid, the budgets, something our club can’t compete with, but we’ve got the heart and we’ve got passion in the dressing room and it’s our job to go show that on Saturday afternoon.”