Now if I was paranoid (or more paranoid than I actually am) I'd probably believe that the goal came through this inadvisable tempting of fate but in truth it was down to yet more sloppy defending from Mossley. For the umpteenth time already in the five games I've seen this season an opposing player was allowed the freedom to run towards the Mossley box and ping a cross over to an unmarked team mate. On this occasion it was Chris Howarth who was the beneficiary of this sadly repetitious event and he hammered the ball into the net to register what will probably be the easiest goal he'll score all season.
If the lesson of not to leave players unmarked in the box hadn't been learnt over the course of the past month, it was hardly likely that it would over the course of the following five minutes so it didn't come as a surprise when the same set of circumstances transpired once more. What was a surprise though is how Garforth didn't double their lead as with an entire goal to aim at a visiting attacker, whose identity will forever remain a mystery to me, shot directly at the one Mossley player on the line. If the ball had nestled in the back of the net I'm practically certain that Garforth would have claimed all three points but it's incidents like these which become turning points.
Not that there was any evidence it would prove to be a game changing moment as Mossley's attacks were just as blunt and scarce as they have been in all the league matches at Seel Park this season. The Garforth goalkeeper did produce a spectacularly acrobatic save to prevent a Steve Settle shot from going off for a goal kick but in truth there was only one side that looked like scoring. And here's a hint: it wasn't Mossley.
And so it proved on the stroke of half-time when Town centre half Tom Marron produced a goal out of nothing. There appeared to be no danger at all but with his back to goal he hooked the ball over both his shoulder and the keeper and into the net. Unfortunately for him it was his own keeper and his own net but that shouldn't take anything away from the sheer quality of the effort because I don't think any player in the world could replicate it.
The Evo-Stik website has the o.g. as being scored by Andy Villerman and that does a great disservice to Marron so I hope he's pleased to know that there's at least one corner of the world wide web that will correctly salute him for his commitment to the Mossley cause. It's a good job there was no one round to capture it on film though, eh Tom? Oh, that's right...
Some of the best things in life are sudden and unexpected (apart from being hit by a bus of course) so the fact Mossley went off at the interval on level terms was a rather pleasing thing. And it got even more pleasing five minutes after the restart when Lee Blackshaw fired a 25 yard daisy cutter past keeper Lee Kelsey after being gifted the ball by a Garforth defender.
In the 15 minutes following the go-ahead goal Mossley produced some of the best football I've seen them play this season. Not only was there some invention and intelligent passing and movement, it was finally married to some efforts on target - ones which actually had to make the keeper work to prevent the ball from hitting the net.
One effort was hacked off the line and Kelsey had to make a great save to stop Steve Settle putting Mossley further in front before producing an even better block to prevent... erm, actually I don't know who it was he stopped from putting their name on the score sheet because the shot came from one of the dark spots dotted around the pitch. That's right, a month into the season and there are 33 miners a mile underground in Chile who still have better lighting than we do. I don't want to keep bleating on about it (really, I don't) but the current set-up of the lights could cause us problems if they're not altered.
This period of Mossley pressure didn't last long but at least it was enough to constitute a spell which is vast improvement on the glimpses we've otherwise been getting.
In their attempts to get back on level terms Garforth abandoned the patient passing approach they'd been employing all evening and began to launch the ball as quickly as possible up the pitch. It's not pretty to watch but it's effective, especially when used against a somewhat shaky defence. It led to a few heart in mouth moments for the supporters as they noticed the odd player or two in a yellow shirt ghosting into the box unmarked but Mossley survived these late scrapes unscathed in order to secure/hang on for (delete as appropriate to the levels of rose tint in your glasses) the win.
And lets make no bones about it – the win is all that mattered. It would have been nice to have claimed the victory through playing breathtaking football but given our league position, even at this early stage of the season, getting points in any way, shape or form was paramount.
To be fair though the performance was better than the ones I've seen so far at Seel Park this season. However, despite this improvement there are still aspects of our game that any side with a half decent attack or regimented midfield will have a field day with unless we finally get around to addressing them. The them in question being the sloppy passing, the slack marking, etcetera, etcetera, and so forth.
I'll ignore those worries for the time being though (at least until the next game) and I'm just going to be happy that I've eventually got to witness Mossley win a game again. After all, you have to enjoy these small pleasures in life while you can.
While reading the above you may have noticed the omission of something that every other report on the game have mentioned. There's a reason for that. Well two actually. No, three. The first is that it had no bearing on the game whatsoever. Second of all, I've no wish to get involved with assisting Simon Clifford in his publicity stunt. Finally, and I know it may well contradict point number two, I'm umming and ahhing as to whether or not to do a separate post on the subject
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