Off To: Cammell Laird

It's a break from the trials and tribulations of our Unibond Premier League campaign this Saturday as we once again set foot on the Trophy trail, this time westwards towards Birkenhead to take on Cammell Laird.

As success stories go, they don't really get any better than Cammel Lairds recent history. After spending the best part of the last 100 years in local leagues they joined the NWCL Division Two in 2004, winning the League, League Cup and Division Two trophy in their first season. Their rapid rise continued last season when they won the NWCL Division One title and gained promotion to the Unibond First despite having six points deducted (lets have it right, you can never have been a proper NWCL team if you haven't had points deducted at some stage).

Currently Laird sit fourth in the Unibond First, six points behind leaders Stocksbridge (and realistically seven places behind us) though they do have three games in hand. In fact it would just be easier to boil things down to this: as it stands they've scored over 300 goals and only lost eight league games during their two and a bit years in the more senior echelons of the pyramid. All of which, I'm sure you'll agree, is mightily impressive if not a trifle worrying.

At least it would be if we were playing them in the league but we're not - this is wild and wacky world of the FA Trophy where anything can happen! (That's 'anything' in a football context, not 'anything' as in a game being held up by monkeys having a go kart race round the pitch context. Though we do live in hope.)

Both sides enter this first meeting between the two clubs on the back of a defeat; Lairds nine game unbeaten run came to an end at home to Prescot last Tuesday in the League Cup whilst the less said about Mossley's game at Ossett the better.

Prediction: At this stage of the competition last year Mossley went to Gresley and came back with superb 4-1 win so who's to say that we can't do it again against tough opposition? Well me for one as I think this will be a creditable draw for Mossley, giving them the opportunity to claim the £2000 prize money at Seel Park on Tuesday.