And there was an awful lot to raise the ire too: Mossley's performance; another game presided over by the latest in a seemingly never ending list of buffoons; the sheer annoyance and irritation of the Skelmersdale chairman's sub-village disco dj-ing; the man in the middle; the “If I was chocolate I'd eat myself” arrogance of some of the home supporters; the main match official; the crap signage on the towns roundabouts; the Skem fan who'd parked his car in front of one of the paths into the ground... the list is nearly endless. And did I mention the referee?
In fact it's quite possible that through the above I could have rediscovered the zest for a lengthy diatribe. The bitterly sarcastic railing at all and sundry that's not been seen since Mossley80's golden years. Not that its really had any golden years...
Thankfully though I've calmed down a bit as I've grown older (and studied the laws on libel and slander) so there'll be no spleen venting in this report. That's not to say though that there isn't an alternative draft sitting in my hard drive full of the kind of spit and venom you'd normally only reserve for people who use the heads of puppies to bang nails into the eyes of kittens.
Though Mossley went ahead in the third minute, it was, even at that early stage of the game, completely against the run of play; Skelmersdale having wasted two glorious chances to open the scoring not long after the match had kicked off.
Take the lead we did though and it was all thanks to a moment of high comedy. Centre half White made a complete hash of dealing with Reece Kelly's lofted forward pass; an error compounded further by the keepers hysterical attempt to rectify the situation by starfish jumping over the ball, giving Chris Hirst the opportunity to stroke the it into an empty net.
And frankly that was about it from Mossley as an attacking force in the opening half. They had a couple of corners but nothing else you could claim was even a fraction of a chance.
The goal the Lilywhites were defending began to lead a charmed life and the only surprise when Skelmersdale eventually put themselves in front was that it had taken them so long to do it. Goals in the 24th and 37th minutes from Towey and Robinson respectively edging them ahead. And both coming as the result of some less than spectacular defending. It could have been worse too and the 2 – 1 scoreline at the interval did flatter Mossley somewhat.
What was to transpire in the second half might have been different had the referee shown any kind of bottle and sent Neil Robinson off for an horrendous two footed lunge on Chris Middleton just before the break. The loud crack that accompanied it had some of us fearing the worst but there were more than one or two audible sighs of relief as Middleton quickly got to to his feet.
It was as clear a red card offence as you're ever likely to see (even the non-egotistical section of the Skem support admitted he should have been sent off) but as well as not flashing that colour at an unrepentant Robinson, the referee didn't show him what would have been his second yellow card of the match either- his first one having been awarded for dissent.
So there you have it, proof once and for all that calling a referee a tosser is a far more serious offence than someone coming close to having their leg broken. Isn't it wonderful that the football authorities and match officials have their priorities in order?
Maybe if Middleton had rolled around on the ground, screaming in agony as was the wont of Skem's players in this fixture and the one at our place whenever they got fouled, fouled someone or lost the ball, the offender may have got the punishment he deserved but no. Mossley were punished for one man's honesty and another man's failure to apply the rules he's supposed to have learnt.
It was a sequence of events that not only annoyed the travelling supporters but Mossley manger Chris Willcock too, and his forthright views on what he thought of the referees judgement earned him a seat in the stand for the rest of the game.
He was joined on the sidelines not long after the restart by Daryl Weston, who received his second yellow card of the game in the panic and chaos that followed Andy Robertson's ill advised sojourn outside his area to try and collect a through ball.
Despite having an extra man though Skelmersdale were struggling to make their advantage count. However, just as it was beginning to look as if they were running out of steam, an ambitious shot that was heading into touch took an enormous deflection off of Nick Boothby and sailed over Robertson's head and into the net.
The deficit Mossley faced was back to one almost immediately when Hirst tapped home his second goal of the game following another Laurel Hardy moment from White and the keeper. It was to be the visitors last hurrah though.
A goal mouth scramble ten minutes from time ended with Chris Almond adding a fourth goal to Skelmersdale's collection and that the proverbial floodgates didn't open after it was down to a mixture of good goalkeeping, luck and the type of finishing that's likely to stop Skem's promotion push in its tracks now their star striker has left.
Whether it was fatigue finally starting to kick in or not, Mossley were poor in this game. Other considerations can be taken into account such as the officials, etc. but we simply didn't deserve to win. Or even draw. To be honest, that we weren't on the receiving end of a cricket score is one of the few positives to be taken from the night.
Mathematically, with a potential 39 points still to play for, we're not out of the hunt for a play-off spot yet but the last two defeats certainly haven't helped our cause any. And with some tough games coming up very shortly it's imperative that, if we do harbour ambitions of challenging for a top five place, we beat Chorley in the next game.
If we don't? Well a cup final (or possibly two) isn't too bad a consolation.
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