Mossley 0 - 0 Wakefield

I was hoping to start this, the final match report of the season, with some inspiring words that would resonate amongst those who are proud to associate themselves with Mossley AFC.

Unfortunately all I can come up with is: "Good grief! Wasn't that a dull game?"

Whilst it's a sentiment that will probably get everyone nodding in agreement, it wasn't one I was aiming for.

With neither side on show having anything left to play for the final game of the season turned out to be a ninety minute long sedative; the kind of game where you'd happily stick pins in a voodoo doll of yourself just to stay awake.


I could go into detail about what happened (meaning exilharating passages of text such as 'the spherical playing apparatus rolled gently across the low-growing, green herbage covering the ground, before finally crossing the whitewashed line running parallel to St Jospeh's primary school' and 'the assistant referee signalled goal kick and everyone nodded in agreement for it was a goal kick') but the chances are that either you or I could have slipped into a boredom induced coma long before the third paragraph.

Of course, being responsible for the clubs official match report, along with the one that's printed in the Reporter, I've had to do a straight report on the game and here it is:

With promotion and relegation no longer on the thoughts of both Mossley and Wakefield, there was a concern amongst the supporters present that this would be a game that contained little of note.

And sadly those instincts proved to be correct as the final match of the season looked, for the most part, like the first pre-season friendly of the 08/09 campaign.

What little action the opening period saw was dominated by the home side but their season old problem of converting that superiority into shots and, ultimately, goals once again came to the fore. This meant that despite the ball spending a considerable amount of time in his box, Wakefield keeper Andy Woods had little to do other than pluck the odd cross out of the air or restart the game with a goal kick.

An incident that would have been mentioned in the report had it not been ruled offside

Only twice was he called upon to actually making a save and they both came from shots outside the area. The first was a straight forward catch from a long range effort by Martin Allison but the second, a 35 yard snapshot by Michael Fish, forced him into making a sprawling save to turn the ball away for a corner.

If Mossley shaded the first half, the visitors edged the second, even if it was only by the length of a gnats eyelash. Wakefield were more than content to defend deep and hit Mossley on the break and as the home side laboured in attack, it was a tactic almost paid dividends for them.

Fortunately for Mossley they had goalkeeper Ashley Connor to thank for the final time this season in keeping the scores level, pulling off three good saves to stop the Yorkshire side from notching their third successive victory over the Lilywhites within the space of two months.


As the game slowly lurched towards its conclusion (so slowly in fact that you could have sworn time was going backwards) Mossley almost snatched a dramatic winner in added on time at the end of the match. Some good work by Gareth Hamlet set in motion a chain of events that forced Woods into making three saves in almost as many seconds at his near post to deny Hamlet and Allison twice.

More goals have been scored in games involving Mossley than any other club in the Unibond North this season. Therefore it was somewhat ironic that after 41 games which had seen a total of 160 scored, the 42nd and final match should end without one.

And while Mossley would have undoubtedly liked to have finished what has been a turbulent season with a bang, the result did at least ensure that they go into the next one unbeaten in three league games, as well as giving them their first clean sheet since the end of November.

I don't want to blow my own trumpet but I think I deserve some kind of medal for managing to get 466 words out of a game that could best be described by putting Z-Z-Z-Z in a 96 point bold font.

Subbuteo: The Non-League Edition. Michael Fish seems unperturbed by the giant hand hovering inches away from his head.

That said we didn't play too badly at all. In fact it was the kind of performance you wished we'd put in two or three months ago to stop the rot a bit sooner. Better late than never though and it did at least mean that we finished the year on an upbeat note which is something to be thankful for after all that has gone on in the previous eight months.

So roll on next season then and whatever delights await.