Sometimes though they have to be criticised so in order to get around this unspoken rule euphemisms have to be used. For instance 'hot headed' is used to describe a centre half who's a borderline psychopath and 'rash challenge' to illustrate a tackle that away from the football pitch would be classified as aggravated assault. When it comes bad officials, you'll often see the word 'controversial' liberally applied or one of its many synonyms used instead.
With that out of the way it's on to the match report itself, and apropos of nothing in particular, Mossley crashed to a sixth successive defeat in a game that will long be remembered for a series of extremely controversial decisions rather than the football played.
(See, that long preamble wasn't for no good reason at all. I don't just chuck these things together willy-nilly you know)
As this isn't the official match report though I'll quite happily tell you that some of the officiating in this game was absolutely appalling, culminating in two dismissals that turned what should have been a good finish to a game of football ended into something approaching a West End farce.
Regular readers will know I'm not one for criticising officials in these things as you tend to find that no matter how strange and aggravating some decisions are, they're rarely the sole reason for a defeat. Suffice to say however, if the paths of Mossley and the referee in this game never cross again it will be a hundred years too soon. More about those decisions later.
The match started like so many others have done recently with Mossley under pressure right from the kick off, and it took their opponents no more than three minutes to put the ball in the back of Ashley Connor's net; Kelsey taking advantage of some non-existent marking to control and power home a right wing cross from just outside the corner of the six yard box.
Ossett's second arrived in a similar fashion seventeen minutes later, Kelsey this time turning provider with a low cross from the left wing which Catton tapped home from close range under no pressure.
Both goals sandwiched a host of other openings and opportunities that presented themselves to the home side and to be brutally honest we could have easily been four or five goals down before the midway point of the first half had been reached. However, just when it appeared that it was going to be another match that had the Mossley supporters wishing they'd brought their abacuses to keep a tally of the score, something unexpected happened. Not only did the visitors stem the flow of Ossett attacks but they began to look the better side.
Chances slowly started to present themselves to the Lilywhites as play became increasingly confined to the half the Albion were defending. Gareth Hamlet, Paul Garvey and David Boardman all went close to reducing the deficit as their once confident opponents began to wobble ever so slightly.
With time running out in the opening period it looked like Mossley weren't going to get the reward their belated efforts warranted but right on the stroke of half time they halved the arrears. Picking up the ball after his shot rebounded off the post, Paul Garvey laid the ball back to Daryl Weston on the right hand side of the Albion box. The Lilywhites full back then fired in a looping cross directly onto the head of Gareth Hamlet, who in turn directed the ball past the outstretched arm of the Ossett goalkeeper.
The second half began with Kelsey flashing the ball across the face of Mossley's goal, but the longer the match wore on, the more the visitors began to exert a tighter grip on the game. However the increase in possession failed to translate into an increase in shots on Albion's goal. With this in mind it's hard to argue that Mossley would have definitely salvaged the game had the following events not happened but it does make for an interesting "What if?"
Yes, you've reached that point in the report where it's time to talk about those disputable decisions I alluded to earlier.
In the 71st minute Daryl Weston was shown a straight red for an innocuous looking tackle on the halfway line. Not only did he win the ball, he did so without coming close to touching his opponent yet the referee couldn't get his card out fast enough to send him from the pitch. He was then immediately followed by manager Gerry Quinn for vehemently displaying his disbelief at the decision to the referee. A disbelief that appeared to be equally shared by the Ossett players and management.
Ten minutes later things went from the crazy to the utterly ludicrous. Gareth Hamlet became the second Mossley player to be issued with his marching orders after receiving a second yellow card for the strength of his protestations at the awarding of his first booking. There's no excuse for dissent but his reaction was somewhat understandable considering that he'd initially been cautioned for a volley of verbal abuse that had been directed at a linesman by an Ossett player.
It was at this point, with the game slowly slipping into the realms of the bizarre that I wondered if we weren't being set-up for one of those hidden camera TV shows; the kind were a celebrity whose status is defined by a letter at the bottom end of the alphabet suddenly appears and tells you that it was all a joke. Sadly, as Gareth Hamlet was 'helped' off the pitch by a contingent who hadn't been sent from the visitors bench, it was all to real.
Despite being at a numerical disadvantage for the closing stages of the game it was Mossley that finished the match in the ascendency, so much so that for the final ten minutes the crowd were treated to the sight of a team with ambitions of making the play-offs, playing for time against nine men. Sadly the lack of a decent final ball when they got into dangerous areas meant that a famous comeback remained elusively out of reach.
Now that the dust has settled on the events at the Queens Terrace ground, the fact remains that, unlucky or not, it's yet another defeat for Mossley. Even though it was one of the better performances we've seen in recent times but with the news that relegation is once again back on the agenda for one unlucky club, we need the win that will make us mathematically safe.
Admittedly, after having seen them play recently, it's highly unlikely that Woodley will get the seven points needed to go above us (even if they had fifteen games left let alone three) but it would be nice to see Mossley cement their place in the Unibond without relying on the continuing misfortunes of our near neighbours.
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