The Lost Days

The entirely expected postponement of Mossley's Manchester Premier Cup game at Glossop and the league fixture at Colwyn Bay means that it is now officially 'quite some time' since the Lilywhites last partook in a competitive game of football.

In fact 32 days have passed since that awful/shocking/turgid/"Oh why won't the memories of it fade" performance at Salford City. And if you divide that by seven it means four and a bit weeks of the season have now been lost to what will go down in the history books as 'an unusually nippy winter' (it's true - I've checked with the history book writers).

But that's not all we've lost over that period of time. Besides the two of the floodlights throwing themselves to their deaths in the pre-New Year gales, we've also lost the services of four players. The departures of Danny Egan and Chris Hirst being quickly followed by those of Karl Brown and Tom Spearritt.

You've got to feel sorry for Egan who as a striker always seemed to be "one goal away from regaining his confidence" and sadly that goal never came. Hirst returned to the club in November after an injury hit spell at Salford City. Full fitness never arrived back at Seel Park either and despite a cameo appearance in the League Cup game at Lancaster (in which the local radio commentators picked him out as Mossley's best player on the night) he barely got off the bench on the few occasions he was selected to sit on it.

While those departures are understandable, the farewells said to Brown and Spearritt are odder. Okay, maybe not in the case of Spearett who, along with Adam Morning and Danny Meadowcroft, appears to be another member of the Littlest Hobo club. Brown's exit though is stranger. Admittedly he wasn't every supporters cup of tea but when he was on form he was a good player to have in the side, particularly for his set-piece deliveries.

There have been a couple of signings to help bolster the ranks. We've finally signed a back-up keeper and a winger has arrived from Curzon Ashton. I wish I could tell you more about them but I'm feeling too lazy to do a Google search at the moment.

This being non-league football though we shouldn't be surprised at the comings and goings because a high turnover of playing staff is part and parcel of this level of the game. Most clubs are equipped with a revolving door when it comes squad arrivals and departures - it's just that Mossley's can cope with coach parties passing through them rather than the odd solitary bod.

The next game on the horizon, which is of course dependent on how the thaw goes, is the rearranged cup game against Glossop. After weeks of inactivity for both sides the chances of a decent game taking place are akin to finding something nutritional and tasty in the KFC that's next to door to the NWCL side's ground. I mean, it's not as though either side was ripping up trees before their enforced breaks.

Oh, I almost forgot, Mossley may not be quite as ring rusty as it seems when they visit Surrey Street in midweek (weather permitting). Apparently we did play a behind closed doors game with Northwich Victoria a couple of weeks ago and chipped in with 25% of the goals scored during the work out. Well that sounds better than we lost 9-3 which we are rumoured to have done. Stories are abound too of a similar game against Stalybridge having taken place this weekend as well.

So somewhere not very far away football is actually taking place. Who knows? We may get to see some of it ourselves very soon.