TO SAY it has been a summer of upheaval at Curzon Ashton would be an understatement.
Manager Craig Mahon departed for AFC Fylde and top players headed out, including Isaac Sinclair – who went to League Two Accrington Stanley, Stefan Mols – who went up a level to National League Tamworth and Isaac Buckley-Ricketts, who was snapped up by ambitious Macclesfield.
Former assistant Mark Bradshaw stepped up to take the hotseat as The Nash look to defy the odds again after agonisingly missing out on the National League North play-offs last term.
A much-changed squad – a younger squad – has seen eight new signings along with a number of key retentions.
Now as the clock ticks towards the season opener against Leamington on Saturday, August 9, Bradshaw has told his squad to perform, or else.
He told the club: “We want players who want to play for Curzon Ashton.
“It’s our intention as a management group to work hard with them and challenge them in the right ways to get the best out of them.
“For me, pre-season’s been a very positive one. We’ve seen lots of good signs.
“The new group we’ve got in is quite young. They’re all in their early 20s with the odd one younger than that.
“We give them the opportunity at this level, which is unforgiving. They have to perform to a high level every single week
“They’ve got to understand that if they don’t perform, someone else is going to get the opportunity to perform – that’s the pressure that’s part of football.”
Curzon face big names with big ambitions this season, including former Football League sides Chester, Darlington and Macclesfield.
Throw in AFC Fylde, with whom former boss Mahon returns on September 29, and trips to the likes of Merthyr Town, Peterborough Sports, their opening opponents, Bedford Town, Oxford City, King’s Lynn and Hereford and it will be a long journey.
But while the person in charge may be different, the ethos at the Tameside Stadium remains the same.
Bradshaw added: “I’ve always worked one game at a time. It’s a cliché but that’s what it is.
“The long-term aims for the club have always been the same – stay in this league and do as well as you can.
“The difference between this year and last is all of the players who started last year had all played a lot of games at this level.
“This year, it’s not the case, so the difference in consistency levels is going to be that little bit more.
“And we’re going to play teams in our league that are as good as Halifax, who we played in pre-season.
“And a few of them are coming early in the season.”