After hitting what was arguably the lowest point of the season with a defeat at home to bottom of the table Salford, the prospects of Mossley picking up anything against a team second in the league and then a bogey side over the course of the next seven days weren't particularly high.
However, and as if to prove the cliché about a week being a long time in football true, the Lilywhites followed up an impressive performance in their midweek victory over high flying Bamber Bridge with a display of equal calibre to claim a comprehensive win at Lambeth Grove, the home of Stockport side Woodley Sports.
It was a win that was effectively decided within the space of five first half minutes as well. A period during which Mossley found the back of of goalkeeper Ben Connett's net on no less than three occasions.
There was little Connett could do though but stand and watch as Danny Self got the blitz under way in spectacular fashion in the 17th minute. Twenty yards out and stood almost with his back to goal, Self acrobatically span and looped a loose ball past the stranded keeper and into the top corner of the net.
Self was also instrumental in Mossley's second goal. Picking up Danny Egan's intelligent through ball, the former Maine Roadplayer burst into the box only to be felled by one, or possibly both, of the Woodley players who'd converged on him. The referee showed no hesitation signalling a penalty and after a short delay while remonstrations were waved away, Egan calmly sent Connett the wrong way from the spot to register his ninth goal of the campaign.
Less than sixty seconds later the third goal arrived and contained elements from opposite ends of the football quality spectrum. The ridiculous, a woefully misjudged thirty five back pass by Adam Morning, gave way to the sublime as Danny Dignan brought the intercepted ball under control with his first touch and with his second, lifted it superbly over the onrushing Connett.
It was forehead slapping stuff from the officials too. Well, at least one of them. Even though it was a Woodley player (at the time of writing) who kicked the ball to Dignan while he made his way back up the pitch from a previous attack, the linesman stuck his flag up for offside. Thankfully the referee knew the correct laws of the game and, after allowing play to continue, explained them to his assistant as both teams lined up for the restart.
The home side managed to make it to the interval without suffering further embarrassment but they should have also gone in at the break with one goal to their credit. That they didn't though was down to Gavin Salmon replicating the form he showed in his brief stint at Seel Park by somehow conspiring to head wide of an open goal in injury time.
Not unexpectedly, Woodley's approach to the second half was to throw everything but the kitchen sink at the Lilywhites in attempt to rescue the game. They barely scratched the visitors back line though, let alone make a significant dent, as Mossley's resolute defending confined them exclusively to trying their luck with speculative shots from a distance that was never going to cause keeper, and captain for the day, Andy Robertson any problems.
If anything it was still Mossley who always looked the more likely to be the next team to score and that they didn't was down to a combination of some very near misses and a few eyebrow raising offside decisions. In fact the assistant referees flag was proving to be Woodley's best defender as their back four, along with the linesman, continually struggled to deal with the pace and movement of Dignan and Egan.
They got no respite either when the two Danny's were eventually replaced by Matty Berkley and Michael Fish late on in the game, and both combined set up the fourth goal for Mossley's first substitution of the afternoon, Lee Blackshaw; the winger stroking the into an unguarded net from the edge of the six yard box.
Hopes of a second consecutive clean sheet for the Lilywhites looked to have been guaranteed when Robertson pulled off a fantastic save to deny Jarrett, but they where quashed when Daniel Queeley scored from the penalty spot with what turned out to be the penultimate kick of the game.
Any lustre it took off Mossley's performance though would only be noticeable if you were to look at it a sub-atomic level because after a display like this one, it takes more than a late consolation goal to dampen the optimism the preceding ninety plus minutes.
To put it simply Mossley were Apoidea’s ginglymus joint.
They just picked up from where they left off at the QED Stadium four days earlier and ran Woodley ragged.
Once again the two Danny’s were an ever present threat upfront and the first line of defence, Weston and Kelly were dominant in midfield, Self and Hirst ran their socks off and the back four (plus one even further back) looked unflustered. Even the one change forced upon us through Graham Kay’s suspension failed to knock the defence from their stride as Kristian Bowden slotted into the centre half position and looked like he'd been playing their all season.
All backed up by one of the subs line-up we’ve had in years, meaning that we now have a team/squad where you have to fight for a place and the players are responding to it in the best way possible.
The only upcoming problem I can foresee is that Woodley are our next opponents as well in the return fixture at Seel Park.
Whilst it's nice that the manner of their complete and utter defeat will still be fresh in their memories, it would have been even better if a longer period of time had been allowed to pass so that the petty grudges built up through flailing arms and late tackles had time to fade away, instead of being put off for a week.
Not just for the possible state of our players health at 16:45 on Saturday but their goalkeepers too. At least his mental state that is because after his 'spat' with Mossley supporters towards the end of this game, it could turn out to be an aurally unpleasant afternoon for him.
That’s for another day though and for the time being it’s best to just concentrate on this one. One which sees us sitting outside the play-offs on goal difference and just six points behind the leaders, only a week after we were in mid-table and heading in a downwards direction because of our fourth defeat on the bounce.
Football. Unfathomable isn’t it?
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