Mossley 1 - 0 Radcliffe Borough

A 70th minute penalty converted by Matty Kay gave Mossley victory over Radcliffe Borough.

And that's an opening sentence to a report that could also qualify as a closing one because it contains a description of every single incident of note that happened in this game.

Really, it does.

However, because I don't think I could get away filing a 14 word match report to the club programme and local paper, I've had to pad out the 'official' view of proceedings by upgrading the most minor of moments into potential score line altering events.

What follows is that artificially beefed-up submission to the print media, so if you decide to read on just bear in mind that the game was nowhere near as exciting as even the ensuing paragraphs try to make it seem.

It wasn't a bad match, just a dull one. Not that anyone expected anything different with both sides playing their third game in the space of five days. The pre-match concerns of fatigue having an impact on proceedings turned out to be warranted, especially in a opening period that was high on errors but low on goal scoring opportunities.

Only twice in the first half did the deadlock ever look like being broken and the two chances fell within the space of sixty seconds of one another. Borough's Gary Sampson fired a powerful long range effort just wide of the angle between post and crossbar while at the opposite end of the pitch, Andy Russell looped a header onto the roof of the net from a free-kick.

The Lilywhites should have taken the lead immediately following the interval when Ben Richardson embarked on surging run which started deep in his own half and ended in Radcliffe box following a neat one-two with Michael Fish. Unfortunately though the finish didn't match the quality of the build-up and his shot flew high and wide of the target.

As time slowly wore on it looked increasingly likely that the game would end in a stalemate. However, with twenty minutes left a needless challenge by Steve Howson gave the Lilywhites the chance to take the lead from the penalty spot and Matty Kay - who'd been on the receiving end of Howson's illegal tackle – ensured they did by netting his 26th goal of the campaign.

Radcliffe offered little in response to going behind and it allowed Mossley to see out the closing stages of the game in relative comfort. In fact they could have had registered a more convincing victory deep into injury time but for a superb double save from Borough keeper Lloyd Rigby which prevented substitutes Steve Moore and Nathan Neequaye from adding to the scoreline.

The win - and a fourth successive one at that - keeps Mossley's hopes of attaining a place in the top five alive for a little while longer sees them jump two places into seventh: their highest league position of the season.

If you've made it this far then congratulations - not many will have done. And if you got bored and easily distracted reading that, imagine what it was like to watch it happen!

It's churlish to complain though as when you're playing a game seemingly every other day, the result really is the be all and end all.