First of all I'd like to apologise for the lack of updates over the close season. I had written a couple of pieces but announcements elsewhere (for example the statement about the shares) made them redundant before I'd had chance to post them.
I had also intended to redesign the blog slightly to freshen it up. However the passage of time has seen that little project grow from simply changing a few of the graphics to a complete rebuild from the source code up. This has meant getting to grips with two programming languages I'd previously avoided like the plague (along with other techy stuff too boring to divulge) and it has been a slow and incredibly time consuming process. As such it means that something I hoped would be ready for the start of the season won't be; in fact having it ready by Christmas is looking incredibly optimistic at the moment. The basic structure of the new site is up, running and navigable but until I'm completely happy that everything is working properly and the glitches are debugged, it shall remain under wraps.
Anyhoo, all that's for another time. What you've come to this page wanting to know about is Mossley's first friendly of the season against Stalybridge Celtic in the Frank Robinson memorial trophy. The eagle eyed amongst you will have already noticed the score at the top of the page so as half of my work is done, I'll just fill in the blanks.
For the first twenty minutes of the game Mossley looked exactly like what they were - a team of strangers. Passes were wayward, tackles were missed, positioning was just an eleven letter word, etc. and somewhat unsurprisingly a virtually full strength Celtic side dominated the proceedings. That they didn't capitalise on this advantage was down to three things: last ditch defensive blocks, a couple of outstanding saves from Liam Higginbotham and some finishing from Celtic's forward line that the word 'laughable' could have been invented for.
Around the midway point of the half though Mossley finally began to click. Passes started to find their intended recipients, important tackles were being won and the Celtic defence was suddenly having to treat the game as more than the gentle run out it had previously seemed.
The Lilywhites improvement was quickly rewarded when the Stalybridge keeper spilled the ball under pressure, giving former Celtic reserve Michael Fish the relatively easy task of rolling the ball into an almost open net from close range. Less than ten minutes later a much more impressive strike from the edge of the box curled its way around the Bridge custodian and into the net, doubling both Mossley's and Fish's tally for the game.
The interval saw both sides take the opportunity to make sweeping changes to their respective line-ups and the following forty five minutes of football was a much more evenly balanced affair. Mossley went close to adding to their total when one of the many Dave's we currently have in the squad hit the crossbar with a looping effort, before Lee Ellington halved the deficit for Celtic just after the hour mark with a nicely executed volley from around 12 yards out.
If there had been something important riding on it, the rest of the game could probably have been described as nail-biting. Like the first half the visitors once again began to spurn a series of golden opportunities although the Lilywhites do have Matthew Kemp, and hit two goal line clearances in the space of a minute, to thank in part for keeping their lead intact.
Not that Celtic weren't living dangerously either. Time and again the Mossley forwards broke through their high defensive line (I say line, I've seen u-bends straighter than Stalybridge's offside trap) and five minutes from time, with Mossley down to 10 men through injury, local lad David Brook sealed the victory with a cool finish when one-on-one with the keeper.
You can just see how good a finish it was in the following video, which contains clips of the other three goals scored along with a few other chances I managed to capture. It's all a bit shaky but it is pre-season for me as well! ;):
With the first match of the summer now come and gone, try as you might, you can't help but be ever so slightly impressed by Mossley's performance against a much more experienced and established side. However they are merely friendlies and just as you can't get overly depressed and critical after a defeat, you shouldn't go overboard with optimism and praise either following a fine result; a good pre-season doesn't necessarily mean a good season and vice-versa. I mean, we're not going to come up against players like Chris Hall every week - a large proportion of teams we'll face are going to have forwards who can shoot straight.
When all's said and done though, our trialists beat their trialists. ;)
2 Comments:
Am sure it was David Brook who scored the third goal who hit the crossbar before Lee Ellington scored.
Yes it was. I've no idea why I put 'Danny's' instead of 'Dave's'.
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