Trafford 1 - 4 Mossley

When a football club is over a hundred years old you find that there aren't many situations that present themselves which require the use of a sentence that includes the phrase 'for the first time ever.'

By this stage of a club's lifespan new experiences are usually limited to cup finals, promotions, relegations and going a full twelve months without the sudden discovery of financial black hole which threatens to drag it into oblivion. This week however Mossley managed a first that occupies the middle ground between success and outright failure: a league game victory at Trafford's Shawe View ground. I know it doesn't have the same glow as a trophy win or the rubbernecking appeal of a club blinking out of existence but you have to take time out once in a while to appreciate these smaller moments of history too.

Details of how this Mossley side (2011 vintage) finally laid the ghost of so many win-free years to rest can be found elsewhere. If you prefer just a précis though Oates, Dennis, Egan and Fish (the club's four forwards and not a firm of solicitors) all scored one goal each while Trafford offered very little in return - their goal coming when an attempted clearance ricocheted off ex-Lilywhite Joe Shaw and into the net.

The added bonus of returning victorious from the little corner of Flixton that Trafford inhabit are the three points that put Mossley into a top ten position in the league for the first time this season: a first that is in some ways equally as impressive considering that not so long ago the prospect of a relegation battle looked a very real possibility.

This being football though, and more specifically Mossley, it's still too early to totally discount the possibility of spending April in a dogfight at the foot of the table. After all it wouldn't be the first time.

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