Right, that’s all from me. It was very literally thrilling. Cheers for being here, bye!
Updated
I think the Press Association’s man on the scene had a good time.
That's it. Curzon 3 Wimbledon 4. One of the most amazing football matches I've ever seen.
— Mark Staniforth (@markstani1) December 4, 2016
Elliott was excellent with his head all day, a veritable fountain of flick-ons. But talk about saving the best till last …
Tom Elliott talks to BT Sport
I’ve got no works for this. It was a hard game. They had their game plan and brought it to us and fair play to them, they went three goals up. We’ve dug deep, and we’re in the third round. That’s what the club’s built on – comebacks, never giving up, determination, motivation.
Final score: Curzon Ashton 3-4 AFC Wimbledon
That has got to hurt. Neal Ardley doesn’t just shake the hand of his opposite number, John Flanagan, but full-on embraces him. Incredible drama, but that was sheer cruelty.
GOAL! Curzon Ashton 3-4 AFC Wimbledon (Elliott, 94 mins)
With perhaps the last kick of the game, Wimbledon win it! They have a free-kick on the half-way line which is punted into the box, and Elliott leaps to flick it perfectly into the corner of the net! And he was looking the other way as he did it!
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90+4 mins: A sniff of a chance for Reeves at the death, but Woodford defends it excellently, and then dummies two Wimbledon players to stroll out of defence. That was classy.
90+2 mins: What a chance! And the ball rolls inches wide! A mistake on the Ashton left allows Taylor to run down the right and cross low towards Barnett, who turns the ball just wide of the back stick!
90+1 mins: The fourth official raises his board, and there’ll be four added minutes, or thereabouts.
90 mins: According to BBC statistics, Wimbledon lead the corner count 14-1, which feels about right. They’ve had a lot of them.
88 mins: Great save by Burton! A long throw bounces up and from close range Elliott heads high towards the far post, over Burton, but he tips it away and Poleon fluffs the rebound!
87 mins: Wimbledon’s three goals came within the space of two minutes and 43 seconds.
86 mins: And now Alex Brown is going off, and Chris Rowney comes on.
84 mins: Ashton take off Guest, and bring on Jordan Wright.
GOAL! Curzon Ashton 3-3 AFC Wimbledon (Barnett, 82 mins)
And this one’s just quality! Reeves crosses from the right, and Barnett heads it perfectly back across goal and in at the far post! The comeback is complete, and it didn’t take long!
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GOAL! Curzon Ashton 3-2 AFC Wimbledon (Poleon, 82 mins)
And they get another! It’s almost identical to their first, though this corner is from the other flank. Again Burton comes for it, again he doesn’t reach it, and again it’s an easy finish!
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GOAL! Curzon Ashton 3-1 AFC Wimbledon (Elliott, 80 mins)
Another corner, and Burton comes out in a mad dash for this one, tries a one-handed superman leap in an attempt to punch it clear with his left fish, misses it completely and from that moment if it fell to any Wimbledon player a goal was inevitable. It lands at the feet of Elliott, who turns it in.
79 mins: Burton have just hogged the ball for about two minutes, playing out of defence, working the ball to the left wing, passing it about a bit and then finally crossing too close to Shea, who collects. Lovely play.
76 mins: Ashton might have got a penalty there! The ball’s played in to Cummins, who is taken down in the area. The referee insists Robertson got some of the ball as he slid in – and replays suggest he was right, as well.
73 mins: How did Wimbledon not score here? From the corner Howard blocks, Robinson heads the rebound towards goal, it’s stopped on the line – well, halfway over it – and then amid a massive scramble a follow-up shot hits Burton in the leg as it also headed towards goal!
72 mins: Another long ball by Wimbledon, flicked on towards the penalty area, and this time Burton comes and doesn’t get there. It’s all a bit of a muddle, but the ball ends up deflected behind for a corner.
69 mins: Strange, this. Does this fan normally come to matches hoping they’re nice and boring? Should they perhaps take up fishing instead?
A Curzon fan has had to leave the stadium because he cannot cope with the excitement. We've always said Curzon gets your heart racing!
— Curzon Ashton Live (@CurzonLive) December 4, 2016
65 mins: Confidence boosted, Ashton play some lovely stuff inside the Wimbledon half, though in the end nothing comes of it.
GOAL! Curzon Ashton 3-0 AFC Wimbledon (Morgan, 63 mins)
From nowhere, a third! Excellent work here from Guest, who turns what is at best a 50/50 ball bouncing down the left flank into a fine chance. He jumps ahead of Fuller, runs clear down the left, looks up and picks out Morgan, who sidefoots in from 10 yards!
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60 mins: Missed chance! A long ball is flicked on to Taylor, whose half-volley from 15 yards flies wide of the near post! A good chance that, although had he shot towards the other corner it would probably have hit the defender desperately throwing himself in his direction.
59 mins: Guest gives the ball away to Parrett, and then hacks the player down in his desperation to get it back. Ashton can’t string two passes together at the moment.
58 mins: Super save! The corer ends up at the feet of Reeves, just outside the area, and he sends a left-footed curler floating towards goal, but Burton tips it over!
57 mins: Poleon has a half-chance, but a defender throws himself in the way. And then another, which is also blocked.
56 mins: Three minutes of pressure from the visitors, who have had a corner from the left, a corner from the right and a long throw from the left. But no chances.
53 mins: Wimbledon are doing plenty of attacking, but mess things up once they get close to goal. First someone tries an ambitious backheel, which a defenders gets to first and boots clear, and then Elliott hits a shot over the bar from an acute angle.
50 mins: Fuller gets to the right byline, but Hampson gives his arm a bit of a yank as he goes by and Fuller’s cross isn’t exactly helped by the fact he was falling over when he hit it, and goes out of play.
46 mins: Wimbledon attack, 30-odd seconds into the half, but there’s no repeat of the first-half theatrics as Burton gets out well to grab the ball ahead of Poleon.
46 mins: Peeeeeeeep! The home side get the ball rolling in half two.
The players are coming back out. We’re 45 minutes away from a potentially hefty upset. Can the home side hold on? We’re about to find out!
Half time: Curzon Ashton 2-0 AFC Wimbledon
45+3 mins: And that’s it for half one. The dream is on here. I’ll be back in a few moments.
45+2 mins: Parrett runs onto a bouncing ball in the penalty area, but then Woodford arrives and clears out both ball and player. Proper meaty challenge, that.
45+1 mins: Into stoppage time we roll, and there’ll be two minutes or so.
44 mins: Ashton have a free-kick on the left, but Shea claims this cross too. Still, though, they’re playing as (better than) equals here.
43 mins: This is true. But then they left pretty quickly.
@Simon_Burnton in defence of the statue, both your Londoner and Italian were born in Ashton.
— Andy McCarron (@MrAndyMcCarron) December 4, 2016
41 mins: Another save! And a great clearance from Hunt! Reeves’ low shot from the edge of the area is curling inside the far post but Burton pushes it wide, and then it looked for all the world as if Taylor was about to tap in, only for Hunt to get in the way!
40 mins: Good save from Burton! The ball drops to Elliott about 12 yards out, and he thunders it goalwards without hesitation. Burton gets an arm to it, and that looked a fine stop.
39 mins: Ashton counter, but though they get numbers forward the cross from the left is too close to Shea, who catches.
37 mins: Elliott gets brushed in the face by a defender as they leap for a header, goes down and spends a while rolling around until the referee stops play. The Wimbledon comeback is yet to start looking very convincing.
33 mins: A cross from the right is headed down to Poleon, who checks onto his right foot and prepares to pull the trigger … when the referee blows his whistle – he’d carelessly drifted offside – and he blasts wide anyway.
30 mins: Wimbledon get a free kick on the left, and bring up the big men. After a while getting everyone ready, Parrett thumps it straight out of play.
27 mins: Oooh! Wimbledon cross from the right, overhit it, cross from the left and then the ball drops to Elliott, whose volley looked goalbound until it thwacks a defender.
24 mins: No premature celebrations, now: in the first round Wimbledon were 2-0 down at Bury after half an hour, drew 2-2 and won the replay 5-0.
GOAL! Curzon Ashton 2-0 AFC Wimbledon (Morgan, 21 mins)
The magic boots strike again! Guest crosses from the left byline, and Morgan arrives unmarked to head in – not very emphatically, but from four yards it doesn’t much matter!
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19 mins: Then they pass the ball into the box, and Howard controls it and then falls over under combined challenge by Shea and a defender. There are a few calls for a penalty, but the referee is unmoved.
18 mins: A nice move from Ashton ends with Baillie cutting in from the right and shooting from 20 yards, but his effort is blocked.
16 mins: In our interview with Adam Morgan, he let slip a secret about his matchday footwear: “I’m good mates with [Burnley’s] Jon [Flanagan] and sent him a picture of my boots, which weren’t the best, alongside a message that said: ‘Lad, sort me with a pair.’ He gave me a few and said one pair were magic. They’re my match boots and I’ve been scoring in them every week.” Magic Boots? The man’s a latter-day Billy Dane!
14 mins: I don’t think Curzon have had the ball within 30 yards of the Wimbledon goal at any point in this opening quarter-hour. Of course that doesn’t necessarily matter, if you can pummel it in from beyond that distance …
12 mins: The ball’s played up towards Cummins, and Shea randomly decides to run way out of goal to challenge him, even though there were a couple of defenders on the scene. Fortunately Cummins can’t get the ball up or indeed around him, and Curzon end up with a corner, from which they cross straight out of play.
8 mins: Ooooh! The keeper comes and pushes the ball to the edge of the area, where Taylor half-volleys it towards the far corner, only for Poleon to get in the way and deflect it over the bar! Poleon was offside, I think, but if he could only gave got out of the way completely …
7 mins: Wimbledon have been vaguely on the front foot in recent minutes, but without really getting the ball into the penalty area. There’s a chance for that now, as they’ve won a corner. The goal in full:
What a stunning strike! Non-league @CurzonAshton go ahead after just 30 seconds.🔥#EmiratesFACup https://t.co/7LLLc3QJ8K
— BT Sport Football (@btsportfootball) December 4, 2016
4 mins: That Wimbledon chance fell to Poleon, who ran onto a flick-on and, with Burton coming out well, tried to push the ball over the keeper but just tapped it into him, and then ran onto the rebound and shot wide.
2 mins: Wimbledon run down the other end and have a chance of their own, but it ends up in the side netting.
GOAL! Curzon Ashton 1-0 AFC Wimbledon (Morgan, 1min)
After 31 seconds, Curzon take the lead! And it’s Adam Morgan! From 30-odd yards he wallops the ball left-footed into the roof of the net!
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1 min: Peeeeeeep! The visitors get the match under way.
A well-observed minute’s silence has been held for the victims of the plane crash in Colombia involving the Brazilian side Chapecoense. AFC Wimbledon are wearing a green-and-greener striped kit in their honour.
Here’s a rough tactical guide, courtesy of BT Sport:
The players are in the tunnel. Proper football incoming.
Outside the Tameside Stadium sits a statue of the three World Cup winners with links to the area: Londoner Geoff Hurst (“The only thing I remember of my time in the North is having my tonsils removed”), Italian Simone Perrotta, and Jimmy Armfield.
Today’s teams:
Curzon Ashton: Burton, Woodford, Hunt, Hampson, Guest, Brown, Howard, Clark, Baillie, Morgan, Cummins. Subs: Tomsett, Paul Ennis, Hall, Gorman, Wright, Mason, Rowney.
AFC Wimbledon: Shea, Fuller, Robertson, Robinson, Meades, Parrett, Reeves, Bulman, Poleon, Elliott, Taylor. Subs: Francomb, Whelpdale, Beere, Kelly, Barnett, McDonnell, Owens.
Referee: James Adcock.
Hello world!
Curzon Ashton, 16th in the National League north and the only team in the English football pyramid to sound like a cinema, have negotiated seven Cup games to reach this one, described on their website as “arguably the biggest game in Curzon’s history”. Factor in the FA Vase and it’s their 10th cup game of the season. In the first round they needed a replay to get past ninth-tier Westfields, at the time statistically the worst team in the competition.
AFC Wimbledon, seventh in League One, beat Bury 5-0 in their first-round replay to qualify for this game. “Can we win this game? Of course we can,” said the Curzon manager, John Flanagan. “Will we win it? That’s a different matter. The likelihood is that we won’t.” Oh, right. Bummer.
“However, we’re talking abut the FA Cup where shocks are always possible. It’s a one-off game that’s a potential banana skin for Wimbledon.” Yeah! The Magic of the FA Cup! Etc!
The winners of this game, or both teams if there isn’t one, will be ball No45 in the third-round draw, which will happen on Monday night at about 7.10pm.
Curzon Ashton’s FA Cup run in full:
Curzon Ashton 1-1 Consett
Consett 0-1 Curzon Ashton
Curzon Ashton 4-0 Bedworth United
York City 1-1 Curzon Ashton
Curzon Ashton 2-1 York City
Westfields 1-1 Curzon Ashton
Curzon Ashton 3-1 Westfields
Simon will be here shortly. In the meantime you can read about why the ditching of more FA Cup replays could be a bad thing for the game …
