Despite dominating the first twenty minutes Mossley were struggling to convert any of the possession they controlled into chances; a situation that was eerily reminiscent to the opening stages of the match against Hednesford a week earlier, albeit this time with the added bonus of not gifting the visitors a one goal lead. Barring a lengthy sequence of corners that were ably dealt with by the Lincoln defence the game had all the drama and excitement of an episode of Songs of Praise.
All that changed just after the midway point of the first half when Peter Wright drew the first save of the game out of Lincoln's keeper Ziccardi. Suddenly Mossley seemed to have a bit more purpose about them and with Shillito and Cooke (a title for a US TV police series if ever there was one) now having the time of their lives rampaging up and down the right flank, the chances started to flow. David Eyres had an effort scrambled away before a move which criss-crossed the field ended with Chris Ward curling a shot just agonisingly wide of an upright.
Mossley were then given a scare as Lincoln's solitary attacking move of the half almost led to them breaking the deadlock. After losing his marker at the back post Frecklington weakly headed the ball wide with an open goal at his mercy, allowing the majority of people within Seel Park to breathe a huge sigh of relief.
Within two minutes though Mossley had opened the floodgates. Another well worked move along the floor ended with Wright finding David Eyres in the corner of the box and, after turning one defender, the veteren winger lobbed the ball over Ziccardi to give the home side a deserved lead.
Eyres (twice) and Wright all went close to increasing Mossley's advantage before, six minutes from the interval, Chris Ward opened his account for the club. Nicky Thompson split the Lincoln back line with long pass and with one touch Ward chipped the ball over the advancing keeper to double Mossley's lead.
With Lincoln more than happy to defend in numbers despite being two goals down in a cup game, it was almost inevitable that more goals would come and number three duly arrived eleven minutes into the second half. Once again it was Chris Ward that applied the finishing touch, this time to an inch perfect cross from the right supplied by Lee Shillito.
As is customary for a team on the receiving end of a thrashing, the goalkeeper was by far and away Lincoln's man of the match. With practically little help from his team mates he was single handedly stopping Mossley from running up a cricket score - the diminutive number one bouncing around like Yoda in the the Star Wars prequels in a desperate attempt to keep the score respectable. It was at this point though were, unfortunately for him, 'irony' put in an appearance. Adie Orr's first touch in a Mossley shirt came back off the woodwork and Ziccardi was helpless as the ball appeared to ricochet off his bum and roll slowly into the empty net.
Chris Ward had a great chance to complete his hat-trick before Eyres wrapped up the scoring for Mossley in the 85th minute, bending a superb 20 yard free-kick around the Lincoln's six man wall and into the bottom right hand corner of the net.
Once again Ward had the chance to grab his third goal of the game (this time hooking a shot wide of the far post) before the day's scoring was completed by the visitors, Lincoln to take advantage of Mossley's special offer of the week - a last minute goal out of nothing. Substitute Sean Cann took full advantage of a four man defensive mix up to give the visitors a deeply undeserved goal with an admittedly well taken finish from the edge of the box.
Following some turgid early season performances the Lilywhite's appear to be rediscovering they type of football that got them to this level in the first place. Although the last minute goal does take a bit of a shine off things, you can't grumble with a 5-1 win in a cup tie against a side in your own division.
Fans who look for omens will note that the last time Mossley won an FA Trophy game by this score we finished the season sat in London's biggest litter bin/urinal. Of course Lincoln are no early 80's Altrincham but you can only beat what's put in front of you and Mossley did it with some flair.
Whether we can do this on a consistent basis will only be answered with time, but for the moment let's just congratulate the players and management on a great result, bask in the glow of being £1350 richer and look forward to whatever the balls at FA headquarters have in store for us on Monday.
4 Comments:
Must double check my pic of the 5th goal - you've got me so I must have you !
Yep ! just above Joe Shaw's head - is that like a "GoogleWhack" or something ?
It's definitely something! :-D
You're on a couple of the other pictures too Smiffy, although they may have you stood behind a post. You're highly visible on the one for Ward's first though.
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