Woodley S 1 - 1 Bridlington Town

The inevitable postponement of Mossley's penultimate home match of the season after almost twelve hours of non-stop rain, snow and sleet gave a handful of Mossley supporters the chance to see two of the Lilywhites opponents in the race for the wooden spoon battle it out.

Woodley vs. Bridlington - packing them in.

When Woodley took the lead in the 66th minute is was a tad against the run of play and by that I mean it was a travesty. Up till that point Bridlington had been the only side on show that looked like scoring. That they weren't the four or five goals ahead that they deserved to be was down to one thing - a complete inability to put the ball into the back of the net. If it wasn't for plastic grass you could have sworn you were at Seel Park.

So not only was Woodley's goal against the run of play, it was with their first real shot as well. The Bridlington keeper did well to turn a long range free kick onto the crossbar but whilst his teammates stood around thinking "Blimey, that was close", Farrell knocked home the loose ball before embarking on a celebration not befitting someone who's just scored a tap-in. As you can see for yourself:


The destination of the three points looked to have been sealed not long after when Town's tricky little left winger was quite rightly shown the red card for abusing the match official. He did have something of a point though in his exclamation of tosspot as the referee, for the second time in the game, had allowed play to continue despite an incredibly blatant foul committed on the edge of the Woodley box.

With time running out Town got their first bit of luck in the match. A harmless looking cross looked to have been headed clear by one of the two Woodley centre halves, only for the ball to bounce off the back of his central defensive partners head and fly into the net. A moment of pure comedy that I rather frustratingly failed to get any footage of.

A typical scene from this game: Town on the attack with the wounded in the background.

Before the match the consensus was that the best result for Mossley would be a Bridlington win but with Radcliffe's surprise victory at Skelmersdale, a draw turned out to be the better outcome.

I'll admit that there was some hesitation about attending this match as the previous games I've seen involving Woodley this year as a neutral have been poor. It was therefore something of a surprise to not only be entertained but witness the best game of football I've seen in well over a month. It would have been nice if that accolade had fallen to a match involving Mossley but you can't have everything.

A scene that didn't fail to emit a few comments from the small band of Mossley fans in attendance. Including an unrepeatable one about a refrigerator and a piece of meat.

Woodley have seen quite a few changes since their previous manager left. Not only is their not one recognisable face on their team, they also have a, how should I put it diplomatically, certain gusto in their approach to tackling. But least they're attempting to marry that steeliness with some decent passing football, a world away from the neck aching long ball of the previous regime.

As for Bridlington, a draw was the least they deserved from the match. Their approach play was excellent but their astonishing knack of wasting glorious chance after glorious chance is something that I hope they carry into next weeks game with Mossley. If we can find our shooting boots I think there's a good chance we could be in line for a point or three.

A rare moment caught for posterity: a Bridlington shot on target during the match against Woodley (ultimately ruled out for offside).