Mossley's first piece of "giant killing" for four years sees them emulate what they did in Whitby in 2004; that is to put themselves into the draw for the third qualifying round of the FA Cup. And by all accounts it was a deserved victory too.
Further insight as to what went on can be found here and here (or at least it will be soon), but not here because I wasn't there.
I've said before on the blog that there are times when spending hours journeying around the country to watch football, even if it is a big match, comes second to other things in life. And there are times when it falls even lower down the list of priorities than that and this was one of them.
The plan to fill what would otherwise have been a blank couple of hours on a Saturday afternoon was to watch Stalybridge's FA Cup tie against Farsley; a game which turned out to be full of goals and incidents.
That was the plan. However, on the way to Bower Fold, a spur of the moment decision was made to take in Droylsden's game against Bradford Park Avenue instead, purely on the basis that it had been a good while since we'd seen a game at the Butchers Arms. And unless Mossley draw the Blood's in a cup competition anytime soon, it will be a while till we see another match there too after this game.
Droylsden 2 - 1 Bradford Park Avenue
As is compulsory in games between sides from different levels of the pyramid, I've got to use the phrase 'you couldn't tell who was the side from the higher division,' but for possibly the first time ever it's not a compliment.
Boy was this game bad. To put in terms of something a Mossley supporter could understand, it was like our match last season with Chadderton in the MPC, only without the scintillating football and box to box action that was in evidence in that fixture. Yep, that bad!
Droylsden's main plan of action appeared to be to get the ball forward as quickly as possible and hope for a set piece, while if Bradford had a plan it was so secret that they hadn't told the players.
A goal from substitute Stuart Rudd just after the interval cancelled out the opener scored by Droylsden's Colin Cryan (naturally following a set-piece) in the one real moment of note in the first half, and it was at this point that the referee obviously thought, "if people aren't going to talk about the football, they might as well talk about me."
The man in the middle's first moment of inspiration (and for inspiration read 'crazy brainstorm') came when the Droylsden goalkeeper and a team mate collided with one another, leaving Chris Hall with an empty net to put the loose ball into. At least he would have been had the referee not decided that two players from the same team running into one another was a foul; a moment of incredulity which he then compounded by booking the former Stalybridge forward for seemingly being the only opposition player within a ten metre radius of the incident to blame it on.
That was nothing though compared to what happened in the 72nd minute when the match official awarded Droylsden a penalty for no discernible reason whatsoever; a decision so unbelievably poor that even some of the home fans were embarrassed that they'd been given it. You don't look a gift horse in the mouth however and the spot kick was duly dispatched by Sean Newton, effectively signalling the end of the game as a contest - although the actual end couldn't come soon enough.
Still if you want to see what few highlights there were, the majority of them, including the penalty incident (but with one noticeable exception) are in the following video:
Or you can view it here in slightly better quality.
What the days events mean though is that along with the Droylsden fans, we Mossley supporters will also be repeatedly hitting the F5 button while on the FA's website this coming Monday morning, to see who we've been drawn against.
Some fans will be hoping for a glamour tie, if indeed there is such a thing possible in the Third Qualifying Round, but I for one will be hoping for a meeting with the worst team still left in the competition. Why wish a harder path for yourselves when you're this close to the First Round Proper? Screw "the magic of the cup" and bring on the League sides, the cameras and the big pay day in the easiest way possible.
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