Curzon Ashton
A community-focused Tameside club with a modern ground, a serious academy and a knack for the occasional FA Cup run that puts them on the national map.
Curzon Ashton are a relatively young club by Greater Manchester standards, founded in 1963, but they have become one of the better-run community clubs in the region. They play at the Tameside Stadium, a tidy modern ground shared with community and athletics use, and compete in National League North, the sixth tier. The club has built a reputation for its academy and youth pathway, producing players who move up the pyramid and occasionally into the professional game.
Curzon are also FA Cup specialists in the way good non-league clubs sometimes are, with first-round-proper appearances and televised ties that briefly turn the national spotlight on Ashton-under-Lyne. Those days – a Football League club arriving at the Tameside Stadium, the cameras present, a few thousand in – are what the lower divisions live for.
The ground is accessible from central Manchester via Metrolink to Ashton and a short onward hop. A solid, friendly, no-nonsense non-league club worth supporting.