Chip Wrappers: 20/10/2006

Besides raising the average age of the squad quite considerably, the signing of David Eyres also had another astonishing effect for Mossley - the biggest amount of coverage we've received from the FCUManchester Evening News for a long, long time. Okay, so its only a five line paragraph in the Saturday edition (the quietest day for sports coverage in the paper) but it's certainly a lot better than the usual fleeting mentions we occassionally get, often on a Monday in the back end of a sentence containing the words 'lost' and 'again'. The Eyres signing also got us on the back of the Oldham Chronicle and speaking of back pages...

If you ignore the IKEA wraparound sheet, we made the back of the Advertiser for the first time this season too. It might not be the major story, that's Droylsden again, but details of our Trophy tie being next to it in a little yellow box is better than nothing.

After reading the back of The Reporter (Droylsden and Stalybridge, again) it was with a heavy heart that I prepared to open the last page, expecting once again to have that picture of the side that plays at Bower Fold staring back at me. With a sigh I turned back the sheet and...

It wasn't there!

That Hallelujah moment...

Checking to see that I hadn't turned over two pages by mistake I quickly skimmed over the rest of the sports sectionand the rest of the paper, to make sure that it hasn't been surreptitiously hidden amongst the car adverts and obituaries but...

There's no Stalybridge squad photo in The Reporter!

Not only that, the space it has occupied for the best part of the season had been filled with a team shot of... Mossley. In fact all but Ashton United and Glossop have a photo of some desciption in the paper. It could well be that the increase in the amount of pictures is due the lack of midweek games to fill the space with but it does freshen up what had become a very staid section. Fingers crossed that its the start of better things to come and a return to something approaching the sections 'Glory Days' when Pav was in charge.

In the grand scheme of things none of the above is earth shattering stuff but after an opening nine weeks to the season where Mossley have mostly been on the periphery of the local print media's radar, it's good to see a bit of positive publicity. In all probability things will be back to normal next week but at least, like some alternative version of 'It's A Wonderful Life', we've had a taste of what things could be like.

Till next week...

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