The cause for celebration isn't the result (after all, we did beat Hyde at this stage last year too) but the fact it I actually kind of enjoyed a game of football for the first time in a long while. I know, I can't quite believe it myself. It may only turn out to be a fleeting thing but I might as well enjoy it while it lasts.
I knew the night was going to be different when on the way to the match, one of the Mormon missionaries sat a couple of seats in front of me on the bus, started taking photos of the adverts stuck on the wall. No, I've no idea why either but he was getting very excited about an anthropomorphised drinks carton on a "take home your litter" ad. Maybe they're objects of worship in Salt Lake City, who knows?
The sightings of unusual things didn't end there either. Over the course of the evening I not only saw Mossley run rings around a Blue Square North side but a goalkeeper open the scoring, Lee Blackshaw score with a header, a linesman stunned by a referee's decision, a centre half do a reverse flick ten yards outside the opposition box and lots more I've simply forgotten.
Apart that is from something that ranks very low on the list of things you's like to see happen more often in the game - somebody diving not once but twice to try and win a penalty in the closing stages of a friendly in which his side is trailing by three goals. Commitment to the last or just plain old cuckoo? The choice, ladies and gentlemen, is yours.
Anyway, the match itself.
For the first twenty minutes the teams seemed evenly matched but once Mossley keeper Peter Collinge had drop kicked the ball over his opposite numbers head to give the Lilywhites the lead, it became the kind of contest the phrase "one way traffic" was invented for.
Although Mossley were only able to add to their total twice more (with a deflection playing a significant helping hand, or rather bum as you'll see in the video for one of them), Hyde could have had no complaints if the score had been double or even triple what it was.
The upright was hit on three separate occasions, chances were scuffed wide,over or into the arms of the keeper but more importantly, and for the first time this pre-season, Mossley looked dangerous every time they went forward.
But why read when you can watch?
There were some very good displays all over the pitch. Not least from a new arrival playing in central midfield. Displaying all the qualities of someone who looks like they've played at a far higher level he was very good. But as I said earlier, they all were.
Of course the caveat is that you've no idea how strong the side Hyde put out was. But scratch team or not they got beat. And convincingly too.
Fingers crossed then that the good stuff continues against what is going to be a full strength Wigan Robin Park side on Thursday.
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