Having at one point looked like we might be about to climb a couple of places, a fortnight of wit and whimsy (or rather Witton and Whitby) seems to have seen Mossley land on an ophidian in the Unibond League:s version of Snakes and Ladders; with square one looming on the horizon once again lik something very dark and foreboding indeed.I'll happily admit that the opening paragraph to this report wasn't very good. Apart from the poor grammar, punctuation and spelling mistakes, the snakes and ladders analogy could have been put across a lot better (how can a flat, two dimensional object 'loom on the horizon'?). However, hands up those of you that noticed this? Now hands up those of you who had their attention drawn to the photograph showing a panda driving a go-kart istead?
Of course more hands went up for the latter because its the most obvious of the two. And for those of you wondering where this is going, here's the point: The text is Mossley and their performance against Witton - the panda is the referee, taking everyones attention away from how bad it is.
The man in the middle was undoubtedly poor last night but to blame him for our defeat, as a few people were doing, is akin to standing in front of an oncoming express train and believing that if you close your eyes and stick your fingers in your ears it will miss you.
The Yorkshire official does deserve an assist for his part in Witton's opener. With 19 minutes on the clock he punished Melford Knight for a perfectly good tackle on the edge of the penalty area and Mark Peers swung the resultant free-kick into the net. It was an unjust way to go behind but if it was a boxing match the visitors, even at that early stage of the game, would have been well ahead on points.
Witton also had the first of a fair few goals on the night disallowed before the karmic inbalance left by decision that led to Albion's opener was addressed. Not for the first time the visitors were allowed a free path to goal and as Connors approached the edge of the box he was taken clean out by Gary Furnival. It could have been a free-kick or a penalty and a sending off but no - the referee and linesman conspired (thankfully) to give one of the most ludicrous offside decisions I've ever seen.
Like the previous game at Ilkeston Mossley showed a few glimpses of what they were capable of just before the interval. With the ball kept firmly on the ground they created a few openings but couldn't convert them into a sustained spell of pressure or a goal; Peter Wright going closest by virtue of being the only player to get an effort on target.
Things didn't get much better in the second period. Mossley huffed and puffed but it was their opponents that were always the most likely to score, chances and disallowed goals coming and going with alarming regularity. Suddenly though with twenty minutes to go we were back in the game.
Just as he'd done at Radcliffe a fortnight earlier, Steve Burke pressured the goalkeeper in to making a rushed clearance that he managed to block. As the ball bounced out wide Burke rushed to retrieve it, fired in a cross and Melford Knight rose between two defenders to loop a header of Joe Worsnop. Burke could have netted one for himself minutes later but he screwed his shot wide after Mossley's best move of the game had put him through on goal.
Alas, the mini revival disappeared as quickly as it had arrived. Witton broke upfield as Mossley stood around waiting for the referee to whistle for a foul on Knight, allowing the speedy Shaun Whalley plenty of time to almost nonchalantly lob the ball over Danny Trueman and put his side ahead again.
Mossley couldn't respond and the majority of remaining fifteen minutes of the game were spent keeping the score line respectable. As the match neared its inevitable conclusion Rob Edwards, like a buffalo on amphetamines, played Shaun Whalley before the ball and as the last man became the first Mossley player to be shown a red card this season. Not long after the final whistle arrived and the silence in which it was greeted by the few Mossley fans remaining spoke volumes.
I don't think we did enough to deserve a point but I can't fault the level of commitment shown by the starting XI last night either - they did their best and that's all you can ask for. Some of them may not be up to the standard required to play in the Unibond Premier or playing when they're not match fit but that's hardly their fault. The responsibility for that lies elsewhere and it'll be something of a miracle if the situation we now find ourselves in is turned around before the next match; a game which could see us facing one the leagues pacesetters without a full bench thanks to the unfortunate injury Danny White picked up.
We're now a third of the way through the league season and if anybody still thinks that all we're suffering is a few teething troubles, that we haven't had the rub of the green or that it's the fault of poor officials...
WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE!
Now is the time to start asking some important and awkward questions or else we'll be looking for a panda in a car from now until May.
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