In the grand scheme of things the NPL/Unibond/Evo-Stik President's Cup is the New Coke of non-league trophy competitions. It's a blight on the fixture list, taking up a valuable midweek slot that could host a league game and help alleviate the inevitable fixture pile-up come April. A contest played in barely filled grounds (even by this levels standards) in which victories are met with the same shrug of the shoulders that greet defeats.
The thing is though that when you've just crashed out of two cups in the space of five days its stature does grow a little; it suddenly doesn't look quite so meaningless. There's still no great wailing and gnashing of teeth at being beaten but there is a touch of despondency at seeing another faint hope of silverware disappear. The melancholy heightened further by it coming at the hands of your near neighbours - Curzon Ashton doing to Mossley in the President's Cup what they'd done in the Manchester Premier Cup the previous Tuesday.
It only took ten minutes for Curzon's opener to arrive and in news that probably won't come as a shock, it came with the help of a gaping hole that appeared in the middle of Mossley's back line. The 'parting of the waves' gave Daniel Shannon a clear run towards the net being guarded by debut making keeper Joe Potts (yes we've got another goalie, a game too late mind, but another goalie nonetheless) and to be fair to the newbie there was little he could do to prevent the visiting number 10 from pinging the ball past him.
The remaining 35 minutes of the half became a competition as to who could miss the easiest chance and for a long time it looked like Matty Kay would take the honours for Mossley with a volley over an open net from six yards. Unfortunately the Lilywhites couldn't even claim victory in this little contest as Curzon took the inaugural "How The Hell Did He Miss That?" title and runners-up spot just before the break through wild efforts from Shannon and Carlos Gazapo.
The second half saw Mossley finally force David Carnell into making a couple of saves, including one outstanding full length stop to deny Richard Bennet from putting the home side on level terms. Carnell's efforts ought to have only delayed the equaliser for a split-second though as the loose ball bounced into the path of Danny Murray, but with the goal no more than three yards in front of him the substitute hit the post.
The Lilywhites actually enjoyed plenty of possession over the course of the second period. However, the number of chances that came from it were a fraction of what they should have been because of all the, colloquially speaking, 'faffing around' they were doing; taking an extra touch or ten when there was a chance to deliver a ball into the box, passing instead of shooting... the kind of things that elicit low but audible groans from the terraces.
Curzon had a few chances to put the game to bed before they finally did so in the last minute. If I put my rose coloured spectacles on I could say that Shannon took advantage of Mossley pushing men forward to break clear and score his second goal of the game. It would be telling fibs though because a) we weren't really going all out for a goal in those closing stages and b) it's not as though he and his team mates weren't breaking clear when we were apparently putting an onus on defending.
As I intimated earlier getting knocked out of this competition isn't a cause for alarm. That it completes a rapid hat-trick of cup exits is slightly worrying though as it means we're one FA Trophy defeat away from bringing the curtain down on our season. I know that if we win our games in hand on the teams above in the league that we'll be there or thereabouts at the top of the division but I'm enough of a realist to know that that's a mighty big 'if'.
So keep your fingers crossed for good things in the Nantwich game on Saturday and lets hope we can keep the season alive for a short while longer.
Mossley 2 - 6 Darlington
As the years come and go and the names and faces change, one thing remains constant at Seel Park: Mossley's ability to press the self-destruct button in big games.
Cups, big prize money, the chance for a moment in the spotlight, all of them hone tantalisingly into view every so often, calling to us like the Sirens did to ancient mariners. The analogy doesn’t end there either because just like those Greek ships and sailors who were tempted by the charms of the three unearthly women, we usually end up getting dashed across the rocks too; a look that’s a cross between anger and stunned disbelief on our faces as we disappear beneath the foamy waves for the third time. And a quick look at the score line which heads this article (go on, have a glimpse) should tell you that this isn’t going to be the time where I go on to explain in detail the exception to that rule.
For the first 25 minutes of this 4th Qualifying Round FA Cup tie Mossley were arguably the side most comfortable with the way things were transpiring. Apart from a corner in the second minute Darlington hadn't been within sight of the home goal, whereas the Lilywhites had actually forced the Quaker's keeper into making one important save and were starting to make inroads through a huge gap in the left hand side of the visitors defence. All the good work - the potential - though was undone in an instant as mistakes from two people swung the game heavily in the Blue Square Premier clubs favour.
Firstly, and sadly not for the first time this season (or even the last time in this game), Andy Watson dallied far too long on the ball before getting himself in a muddle and gifting the opposition possession. The person bestowed with this extreme act of generosity was Chris Senior who was probably chuckling away to himself about how he was going to open the scoring when he was upended by goalkeeper Peter Collinge who, having come charging towards the edge of his area in an attempt to stop Darlington capitalising on the error, succeeded in only compounding the blunder by giving away a penalty and receiving a red card for his troubles.
And it's at this point that the second mistake I alluded to kicked in. When the teams were being announced prior the match the notable lack of a goalkeeper among Mossley's seven substitutes became a small talking point - mostly revolving about how unwise a decision it was should the worst happen and our starting number one’s game come to an end sooner than expected. Little did we know that this conversation would be quite so prophetic and even littler did we know at the time the precise reason as to why there was no one on the bench to take Collinge’s place in goal.
No, that's not right: there's actually no rationale at all for why we shouldn't have had a replacement ready to come on and fill such a specialist position, especially as there were so many spots on the bench available. For reasons that I hope will be explained sooner rather than later, the Mossley management had allowed our reserve goalkeeper to become cup-tied in an earlier round meaning we couldn't call on his much needed services. But even with this being the case, there was nothing to stop the club bringing in a goalkeeper on a temporary, emergency basis to cover the possibility of us needing one? We and other clubs have done this in the past so why not this time? It’s not as though it’s a situation suddenly sprung upon us. Criticise me all you want for saying this (because I know doing so out loud has become a taboo subject in recent years at Seel Park) but it’s really, really bad management - pure and simple.
Anyhoo, back to the game. Right back Ben Richardson was given the task of trying to stop a professional side scoring a goal for 65 minutes and unsurprisingly he failed just 30 seconds into his task as Tommy Wright fired the spot kick past him. There's a small argument at this point to be had about whether Wright should have been on the pitch himself. Prior to the goal his only contributions to the match were three wild elbows swung into the heads of Mossley players (only picking up a booking for the third one) and a dive on the halfway that was so ridiculous that not only should he have been shown a yellow card, but forced to apologise to everyone in the ground over the p.a. as well for such an embarrassingly poor piece of gamesmanship.
His team mate Chris Moore wasn't quite so fortunate in escaping a booking for amateur dramatics. From where I was stood - admittedly at the opposite end of the pitch - it looked like Richardson in his role as makeshift custodian had taken out the Darlington player as he lined up a shot. Instead of another penalty and another red card though, the triple salco with full pike that Moore embellished his time in the air with persuaded the officials that the whole thing was a nefarious plot to seek an unfair advantage.
The relief didn't last too long though as Mark Bridge-Wilkinson soon doubled the Quakers lead (another beneficiary of Mossley's charitable nature with the ball) and out came the calculators in preparation of tallying up the coming deluge of goals.
Something rather unexpected proceeded to happen though. Rather than sit back in the hope of keeping the score down to low double figures, Mossley began to press forward and six minutes from the interval they halved the arrears. An angled ball from Lee Blackshaw made its way inch perfectly through the aforementioned hole in the Quaker's back line and Mike Oates finished the move with a low shot under keeper Sam Russell. Yes, Quakers and Oates. If we'd won I'd have taken the time to come up with a tortured gag in which that was the punchline so see, even this defeat has a silver lining.
With a tiny bit more luck Mossley might have even grabbed an equaliser before the break as they forced a series of corners which got the visitors defence a little jittery judging by the “words of encouragement” passing between their players. Even though that leveller didn’t arrive, what they had done was enough to suggest that the game might not be quite the walkover for Darlington that people were beginning to expect after Collinge’s dismissal.
That belief lasted until the third minute of the second half when another cock-up at the back gave Senior a clear run on goal and the opportunity to restore his sides two goal advantage. Six further minutes later that hope of an unlikely comeback was rather incredibly back again. As if to prove that anything the Mossley defence could do, they could do worse, Quakers centre half Kevin Austin suddenly seemed to become confused by the small round thing which had appeared on the ground in front of him. Just when it looked like we were about to see a world first: a grown man lose a staring contest with a football, Steve Settle picked up possession and slotted a shot under the advancing Russell to bring the ten men of Mossley back into the match.
For a while the game balanced on a knife edge as it became a question of which defence would wobble next. Unfortunately it turned out to be Mossley’s as Austin atoned for his error by firing home from a corner after being left unmarked on the back post. To be fair to the Lilywhites however an unmarked opponent or two was to be expected given they were down to nine players at the time; midfielder Chris Rowney was on the touchline receiving treatment for an injury as the ball crossed the line.
His absence from the pitch was made permanent though with a quarter of the match still to play when he received a straight red card for a... actually, I don’t know what to call it. To label it a tackle would be giving it a status it frankly doesn’t deserve. It was a spectacularly awful challenge and that the Darlington player was able to leave the pitch without the aid of a stretcher is something we should be thankful for. And to whoever clapped Rowney as trudged off the pitch: Really? That was worthy of applause? A potential leg breaking incident which also left us to play out the last 25 minutes with nine men? I thought we were better than that.
Sorry, did I say nine? What I meant to say was eight because in the bout of handbags that developed after Rowney's moment of infamy, Settle received his second yellow card of the afternoon. What he did during those few seconds of pushing and shoving that was any different to what players in a red shirt were doing is beyond me but off he went, no doubt ruing the first and wholly avoidable yellow card he'd picked up minutes earlier for pointlessly arguing with the referee.
With Mossley now employing a formation that consisted of one man up front and six players dotted across the pitch behind him, the fans sat back and waited for the proverbial cricket score to arrive. Goals did arrive but it didn't turn out to be quite the rout that many probably feared.
Darlington's fifth goal involved a mixture of the bad luck and hopeless misjudgement which had haunted Mossley all afternoon. Watson once again gave the ball away when there was no danger at all but it looked like the error wouldn’t be punished as Gary Smith hit what can only be best described as a pea roller towards goal. However when the gods are against you they really rub it in and as Ben Richardson dropped to stop the shot, the ball hit a divot and bounced over his head and into the net. Five minutes from time Chris Senior completed the scoring with a venomous shot from the corner of the box; a goal as simple and as straightforward as that description makes out.
Between the fifth and sixth goals Mossley themselves went close to adding another to the score sheet and it took a very good piece of goalkeeping to stop Oates firing off a shot after the forward had waltzed through one of the gaps where the visitors defence really should have been.
All it did though was make you wonder what might have been had the game been eleven versus eleven for the entire ninety minutes. Or even ten (including a proper, back-up goalkeeper) against eleven because any visiting supporter who says they were comfortable with a man advantage is kidding themselves.
The Quakers (if you’ll pardon the coming pun) were no great shakes. During the period of time both sides were equal in number they didn’t manage a single shot or put together an attack that didn’t have its genesis in a Mossley defensive mistake. And even at the end of an opening period in which they’d played almost half of it against ten men and a makeshift keeper, they’d only managed two shots on target (one being a penalty) and conceded a goal.
“What might have been” though is a question we ask too many times after games like this. When you look back through Mossley’s recent history the big games always seem to come with a caveat: we played well and but for suspensions/team selections/tactics/indiscipline we would have won, and this one is no different.
From a personal point of view I’m disappointed to read our manager’s post match comments in the print edition of the Oldham Chronicle (they aren’t in the online version) in which he puts the responsibility for the defeat on mistakes made by players. I have no problem with that if he also acknowledges the blunder he made in not having a substitute keeper available, which played just big a part in the loss as the other reasons, but he doesn’t; the responsibility for the loss is put squarely on the shoulders of the players which is a tad unfair. If you’re going to proportion blame after a defeat like this then include a mea culpa or don’t say anything at all.
I’d probably better end this now so that the one or two of you who’ve made it this far can go and bathe your eyes with Optrex and return to everyday life but a final word about the Darlington fans. Apart from three drunk supporters at the end of the game leaning over the balcony outside the clubhouse calling Mossley fans s**t, they were an incredibly friendly bunch.
There wasn’t any of the “we’re better than you” and belittling attitude we’ve come across from some fans of other clubs recently. And yes, by that I do mean Halifax. The difference between the Shaymen and the Quakers was so marked it was untrue, especially when unlike the former, the latter have a more valid reason for acting superior and giving it the ‘big I am’. Because of that I wish them the very best of luck in the next round against Bristol Rovers (the prize we could have won) and with that defence I think they may need it .
Who knows, maybe we’ll get the chance to right the wrongs in this match next year. If we do, lets hope Odysseus isn’t registered to a club and cup tied?
Cups, big prize money, the chance for a moment in the spotlight, all of them hone tantalisingly into view every so often, calling to us like the Sirens did to ancient mariners. The analogy doesn’t end there either because just like those Greek ships and sailors who were tempted by the charms of the three unearthly women, we usually end up getting dashed across the rocks too; a look that’s a cross between anger and stunned disbelief on our faces as we disappear beneath the foamy waves for the third time. And a quick look at the score line which heads this article (go on, have a glimpse) should tell you that this isn’t going to be the time where I go on to explain in detail the exception to that rule.
For the first 25 minutes of this 4th Qualifying Round FA Cup tie Mossley were arguably the side most comfortable with the way things were transpiring. Apart from a corner in the second minute Darlington hadn't been within sight of the home goal, whereas the Lilywhites had actually forced the Quaker's keeper into making one important save and were starting to make inroads through a huge gap in the left hand side of the visitors defence. All the good work - the potential - though was undone in an instant as mistakes from two people swung the game heavily in the Blue Square Premier clubs favour.
Firstly, and sadly not for the first time this season (or even the last time in this game), Andy Watson dallied far too long on the ball before getting himself in a muddle and gifting the opposition possession. The person bestowed with this extreme act of generosity was Chris Senior who was probably chuckling away to himself about how he was going to open the scoring when he was upended by goalkeeper Peter Collinge who, having come charging towards the edge of his area in an attempt to stop Darlington capitalising on the error, succeeded in only compounding the blunder by giving away a penalty and receiving a red card for his troubles.
And it's at this point that the second mistake I alluded to kicked in. When the teams were being announced prior the match the notable lack of a goalkeeper among Mossley's seven substitutes became a small talking point - mostly revolving about how unwise a decision it was should the worst happen and our starting number one’s game come to an end sooner than expected. Little did we know that this conversation would be quite so prophetic and even littler did we know at the time the precise reason as to why there was no one on the bench to take Collinge’s place in goal.
No, that's not right: there's actually no rationale at all for why we shouldn't have had a replacement ready to come on and fill such a specialist position, especially as there were so many spots on the bench available. For reasons that I hope will be explained sooner rather than later, the Mossley management had allowed our reserve goalkeeper to become cup-tied in an earlier round meaning we couldn't call on his much needed services. But even with this being the case, there was nothing to stop the club bringing in a goalkeeper on a temporary, emergency basis to cover the possibility of us needing one? We and other clubs have done this in the past so why not this time? It’s not as though it’s a situation suddenly sprung upon us. Criticise me all you want for saying this (because I know doing so out loud has become a taboo subject in recent years at Seel Park) but it’s really, really bad management - pure and simple.
Anyhoo, back to the game. Right back Ben Richardson was given the task of trying to stop a professional side scoring a goal for 65 minutes and unsurprisingly he failed just 30 seconds into his task as Tommy Wright fired the spot kick past him. There's a small argument at this point to be had about whether Wright should have been on the pitch himself. Prior to the goal his only contributions to the match were three wild elbows swung into the heads of Mossley players (only picking up a booking for the third one) and a dive on the halfway that was so ridiculous that not only should he have been shown a yellow card, but forced to apologise to everyone in the ground over the p.a. as well for such an embarrassingly poor piece of gamesmanship.
His team mate Chris Moore wasn't quite so fortunate in escaping a booking for amateur dramatics. From where I was stood - admittedly at the opposite end of the pitch - it looked like Richardson in his role as makeshift custodian had taken out the Darlington player as he lined up a shot. Instead of another penalty and another red card though, the triple salco with full pike that Moore embellished his time in the air with persuaded the officials that the whole thing was a nefarious plot to seek an unfair advantage.
The relief didn't last too long though as Mark Bridge-Wilkinson soon doubled the Quakers lead (another beneficiary of Mossley's charitable nature with the ball) and out came the calculators in preparation of tallying up the coming deluge of goals.
Something rather unexpected proceeded to happen though. Rather than sit back in the hope of keeping the score down to low double figures, Mossley began to press forward and six minutes from the interval they halved the arrears. An angled ball from Lee Blackshaw made its way inch perfectly through the aforementioned hole in the Quaker's back line and Mike Oates finished the move with a low shot under keeper Sam Russell. Yes, Quakers and Oates. If we'd won I'd have taken the time to come up with a tortured gag in which that was the punchline so see, even this defeat has a silver lining.
With a tiny bit more luck Mossley might have even grabbed an equaliser before the break as they forced a series of corners which got the visitors defence a little jittery judging by the “words of encouragement” passing between their players. Even though that leveller didn’t arrive, what they had done was enough to suggest that the game might not be quite the walkover for Darlington that people were beginning to expect after Collinge’s dismissal.
That belief lasted until the third minute of the second half when another cock-up at the back gave Senior a clear run on goal and the opportunity to restore his sides two goal advantage. Six further minutes later that hope of an unlikely comeback was rather incredibly back again. As if to prove that anything the Mossley defence could do, they could do worse, Quakers centre half Kevin Austin suddenly seemed to become confused by the small round thing which had appeared on the ground in front of him. Just when it looked like we were about to see a world first: a grown man lose a staring contest with a football, Steve Settle picked up possession and slotted a shot under the advancing Russell to bring the ten men of Mossley back into the match.
For a while the game balanced on a knife edge as it became a question of which defence would wobble next. Unfortunately it turned out to be Mossley’s as Austin atoned for his error by firing home from a corner after being left unmarked on the back post. To be fair to the Lilywhites however an unmarked opponent or two was to be expected given they were down to nine players at the time; midfielder Chris Rowney was on the touchline receiving treatment for an injury as the ball crossed the line.
His absence from the pitch was made permanent though with a quarter of the match still to play when he received a straight red card for a... actually, I don’t know what to call it. To label it a tackle would be giving it a status it frankly doesn’t deserve. It was a spectacularly awful challenge and that the Darlington player was able to leave the pitch without the aid of a stretcher is something we should be thankful for. And to whoever clapped Rowney as trudged off the pitch: Really? That was worthy of applause? A potential leg breaking incident which also left us to play out the last 25 minutes with nine men? I thought we were better than that.
Sorry, did I say nine? What I meant to say was eight because in the bout of handbags that developed after Rowney's moment of infamy, Settle received his second yellow card of the afternoon. What he did during those few seconds of pushing and shoving that was any different to what players in a red shirt were doing is beyond me but off he went, no doubt ruing the first and wholly avoidable yellow card he'd picked up minutes earlier for pointlessly arguing with the referee.
With Mossley now employing a formation that consisted of one man up front and six players dotted across the pitch behind him, the fans sat back and waited for the proverbial cricket score to arrive. Goals did arrive but it didn't turn out to be quite the rout that many probably feared.
Darlington's fifth goal involved a mixture of the bad luck and hopeless misjudgement which had haunted Mossley all afternoon. Watson once again gave the ball away when there was no danger at all but it looked like the error wouldn’t be punished as Gary Smith hit what can only be best described as a pea roller towards goal. However when the gods are against you they really rub it in and as Ben Richardson dropped to stop the shot, the ball hit a divot and bounced over his head and into the net. Five minutes from time Chris Senior completed the scoring with a venomous shot from the corner of the box; a goal as simple and as straightforward as that description makes out.
Between the fifth and sixth goals Mossley themselves went close to adding another to the score sheet and it took a very good piece of goalkeeping to stop Oates firing off a shot after the forward had waltzed through one of the gaps where the visitors defence really should have been.
All it did though was make you wonder what might have been had the game been eleven versus eleven for the entire ninety minutes. Or even ten (including a proper, back-up goalkeeper) against eleven because any visiting supporter who says they were comfortable with a man advantage is kidding themselves.
The Quakers (if you’ll pardon the coming pun) were no great shakes. During the period of time both sides were equal in number they didn’t manage a single shot or put together an attack that didn’t have its genesis in a Mossley defensive mistake. And even at the end of an opening period in which they’d played almost half of it against ten men and a makeshift keeper, they’d only managed two shots on target (one being a penalty) and conceded a goal.
“What might have been” though is a question we ask too many times after games like this. When you look back through Mossley’s recent history the big games always seem to come with a caveat: we played well and but for suspensions/team selections/tactics/indiscipline we would have won, and this one is no different.
From a personal point of view I’m disappointed to read our manager’s post match comments in the print edition of the Oldham Chronicle (they aren’t in the online version) in which he puts the responsibility for the defeat on mistakes made by players. I have no problem with that if he also acknowledges the blunder he made in not having a substitute keeper available, which played just big a part in the loss as the other reasons, but he doesn’t; the responsibility for the loss is put squarely on the shoulders of the players which is a tad unfair. If you’re going to proportion blame after a defeat like this then include a mea culpa or don’t say anything at all.
I’d probably better end this now so that the one or two of you who’ve made it this far can go and bathe your eyes with Optrex and return to everyday life but a final word about the Darlington fans. Apart from three drunk supporters at the end of the game leaning over the balcony outside the clubhouse calling Mossley fans s**t, they were an incredibly friendly bunch.
There wasn’t any of the “we’re better than you” and belittling attitude we’ve come across from some fans of other clubs recently. And yes, by that I do mean Halifax. The difference between the Shaymen and the Quakers was so marked it was untrue, especially when unlike the former, the latter have a more valid reason for acting superior and giving it the ‘big I am’. Because of that I wish them the very best of luck in the next round against Bristol Rovers (the prize we could have won) and with that defence I think they may need it .
Who knows, maybe we’ll get the chance to right the wrongs in this match next year. If we do, lets hope Odysseus isn’t registered to a club and cup tied?
Mossley 2 - 3 Curzon Ashton
Back in August I said that this season I wasn't going to put the football ahead of my health and it turns out that this Manchester Premier Cup game was the first game to fall under that self-imposed edict.
As much as I'd like to have seen a Mossley side full of players with their minds on Saturday's FA Cup match take on Curzon Ashton, the prospect of spending Wednesday feeling like somebody was using a pneumatic drill to massage my spine as a 'reward' for my attendance meant that while the two teams went head to head at a cold Seel Park, I was at home with a mug of tea and looking forward to being able to put my shoes on the next day without experiencing some quite excruciating agony.
Fortunately there are some souls who've been better assembled than I have and they've written some words about the fixture and placed them on the world wide web. For the Mossley view you can visit the official site or Six Tame Sides, for an independent view there's this blog and for the Curzon view... well, I'm sure if you give the club a ring someone will tell you over the phone.
What the 3-2 result in Curzon's favour means is that we won't be gracing the Boundary Park frigidaire with our presence in May for the final. Bad news for Mossley and their trophy winning aspirations but good news for those of us who like to pack our winter woolies away by the middle of April.
As much as I'd like to have seen a Mossley side full of players with their minds on Saturday's FA Cup match take on Curzon Ashton, the prospect of spending Wednesday feeling like somebody was using a pneumatic drill to massage my spine as a 'reward' for my attendance meant that while the two teams went head to head at a cold Seel Park, I was at home with a mug of tea and looking forward to being able to put my shoes on the next day without experiencing some quite excruciating agony.
Fortunately there are some souls who've been better assembled than I have and they've written some words about the fixture and placed them on the world wide web. For the Mossley view you can visit the official site or Six Tame Sides, for an independent view there's this blog and for the Curzon view... well, I'm sure if you give the club a ring someone will tell you over the phone.
What the 3-2 result in Curzon's favour means is that we won't be gracing the Boundary Park frigidaire with our presence in May for the final. Bad news for Mossley and their trophy winning aspirations but good news for those of us who like to pack our winter woolies away by the middle of April.
Shepshed Dynamo 1 - 4 Mossley
And the cup wins keep on coming.
While Mossley may be struggling for consistency in the League, their form in the cup competitions has been quite the opposite (as long as you pretend that the League Cup game against Trafford last month never happened) with Shepshed Dynamo becoming the latest side to fall defeated at the colourfully attired feet of the Lilywhites.
It was quite the convincing victory in Leicestershire too by all accounts (which can be read here and here) with Shepshed themselves declaring that they were flattered by the score line; Mossley’s third 4-1 victory in the space of four games.
Not only is it a win that puts us into the Second Qualifying Round of the FA Trophy (and a home tie against Nantwich Town) it also means we’ll go through the month of October without having played a single league fixture; our cup matches having taken up all eight possible match day slots.
With the likelihood of there being another bad winter on the horizon as well - and the all the postponements that will inevitably bring - it’s probably time to start saving now for the three or four matches we’re probably going to be playing every week in April as we plough through the backlog of fixtures.
While Mossley may be struggling for consistency in the League, their form in the cup competitions has been quite the opposite (as long as you pretend that the League Cup game against Trafford last month never happened) with Shepshed Dynamo becoming the latest side to fall defeated at the colourfully attired feet of the Lilywhites.
It was quite the convincing victory in Leicestershire too by all accounts (which can be read here and here) with Shepshed themselves declaring that they were flattered by the score line; Mossley’s third 4-1 victory in the space of four games.
Not only is it a win that puts us into the Second Qualifying Round of the FA Trophy (and a home tie against Nantwich Town) it also means we’ll go through the month of October without having played a single league fixture; our cup matches having taken up all eight possible match day slots.
With the likelihood of there being another bad winter on the horizon as well - and the all the postponements that will inevitably bring - it’s probably time to start saving now for the three or four matches we’re probably going to be playing every week in April as we plough through the backlog of fixtures.
Mossley 4 - 1 Lincoln Moorlands Railway
Breathe out... ... ... and relax.
It's a hearty "phew!" to be exhaled too because this game wasn’t quite as straight forward as what the score line above may lead you to believe. At face value it suggests that Mossley may have dominated proceedings and to be fair they did - controlling virtually all but a small percentage of the play - but their extraordinary ability to do so while remaining one scuffed pass away from disaster meant that the finger nails of the home fans would not go on unbitten for long stretches of this FA Cup 3rd Qualifying Round replay.
The pattern of the game was set out early on with Mossley looking to attack their opponent’s goal at every available opportunity (to wildly varying degrees of success) and the Lincolnshire side focussed on attacking anything that moved; a tactic which saw them come into contact with the ball occasionally and the ankles of men in white shirts slightly more often. Within the first five minutes alone there were three challenges perpetrated by the visitors that were all worthy a booking yet it was only the third one which received the requisite punishment - a three for one special offer that went on all night and one taken advantage of by far too many players.
For all the possession Mossley had in the opening period they didn’t really create a lot of chances with it. There were plenty of crosses and cut backs from wide positions but rarely did they lead to Railway’s goal being troubled. Only twice in the first half hour was keeper Mario Ziccardi was called upon to rescue his side; the first time to deny Ben Richardson after the right back had made one of his trademark darts into the box and the second to keep out a fizzing shot from the edge of the area by Mike Fish. The closest Mossley actually came to taking the lead was when the ball grazed the cross bar after a low cross from Steve Settle ricocheted off the knee of a defender.
As the half wore on Lincoln began to get a little more adventurous and their back line started to sit a little closer to the halfway line than their own 18 yard line. Given how leaden footed their defence was compared to Mossley’s forward line it looked and was soon proven to be a bad idea. A simple through ball gave Mike Oates a free run on goal and he calmly placed the ball past Ziccardi to give the home side the lead. Although looking at the video of the goal, it seems it needed the help of one of the many and infamous Seel Park bumps to take it over the leg of a covering defender as well.
Over the remaining seven minutes of the half Lincoln abandoned their short lived positive approach to the game and returned to the more robust style they’d ‘entertained’ the crowd with previously. I truthfully don’t think the game went on for more than twenty seconds without the referee calling a halt to proceedings for a foul. The match would restart, a group of players would cluster round the ball before one player in a white shirt was suddenly two foot higher (and more horizontal) than everyone else, at which point the whistle would blow, Mossley were given a free-kick and the cycle would begin again. Not even the interval brought an end to the combativeness as the walk back to the changing rooms took three minutes longer than expected due to the first players to leave the pitch having what is commonly described as an ‘altercation in the tunnel.’
Still, things were looking good for Mossley. One up at the break against a team that already looked dead on their feet and one that seemed highly unlikely to finish the match with eleven players on the pitch. And if you think that’s a cue for the next paragraph to begin with the word however, you’re not wrong.
However something happened while the teams were devouring orange segments, drinking energy boosting coloured water or whatever it is players do between halves. Mossley returned to the field of play looking a shadow of the side they were fifteen minutes earlier - full of nerves, misplaced passes and leaden of boot - while Lincoln emerged from the changing rooms like they’d spent the interval channelling the gods of football.
I speak with all honesty when I say that if it wasn’t for the fact that their faces were the same you could have sworn they’d replaced their entire team with ringers, because for ten minutes after the restart they ran rings round us. If I hadn’t been fretting about what this turn of events could mean I might have been impressed with how Lincoln were playing. The fretting didn’t last long though because it was quickly superseded by a full blown collective panic attack when the visitors pulled level; another moment in which Mossley didn't cover themselves in any glory defensively. A failure to clear the ball, an opponent allowed time to put a cross into the area, an attacker winning a header in the six yard box, a man in acres of space at the back post... it was like a compilation of Mossley's recent worst bits - Now That's What I Call Schoolboy Defending Vol 10/11
Even though they had us on the proverbial ropes by the simple act of playing decent football, Lincoln couldn't help themselves from reverting back to the Bruce Lee impressions they were 'delighting' us with in the first half and one spectacularly unnecessary challenge outside their own box later, Mossley were presented with a free-kick from which they were able to retake the lead. Ben Richardson’s delivery was headed back across the face of the goal by Aaron Chalmers and Oates notched his second of the night from close range.
At this point I'd like to say that the wobbles stopped and the Lilywhites strode purposefully onto victory but they didn't. It took a fantastic save from Peter Collinge and the flag of an assistant referee to stop Lincoln drawing level again though the butterflies in the pits of the supporters’ stomachs were settled when the Lilywhites gave their lead a cushion. And a smart little goal it was too with Lee Blackshaw flicking the ball past Ziccardi with the back of his heel. A moment I believe the word 'deft' was invented for.
With time ebbing away and the game slipping from them with every passing second, Lincoln once again set about their opponents legs with great gusto and I'm sure they'll be disappointed that, thanks to the increasing leniency of the referee, they didn't take their card count into double figures. Still, a total of seven yellow cards isn't something to be sniffed at for ninety minutes work.
”Hiiiiiii-ya!” And the referee reaches for his pocket once again...
Three became four for Mossley in the closing stages of the match when Mark Connor bundled the ball over the line following more good work from Blackshaw and that was it: the last hurrah on what eventually turned out to be good night for the majority of people situated within Seel Park.
If you can blank out the jittery period following the interval, there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful about this result and performance. First of all there’s the win and the cheque in the post from the FA that comes with it. Secondly, and even taking into account the lower league status of the opposition, this was arguably our best display at Seel Park this season. It wasn’t fantastic but it was a class above the other showings I’ve seen in terms of spirit and ideas.
And if you think that the last paragraph is a little too upbeat for this blog then I should balance it out by saying that the defence looks frighteningly porous at times. Until we start to look a bit more solid we run a real risk of being punished heavily by good sides for the laxness we seem unable to shake.
Still, I'm sure there'll be plenty of time in the comings weeks and months to grumble about the whys and woes - defensive or otherwise – that come with following this club. Till then though it would be silly not to take time out and admire the accomplishment of reaching the 4th Qualifying Round of the FA Cup for the first time in over two decades.
Better still is the fact that there's no pressure in the next round. Our opponents Darlington are three leagues above us and expected to win.; we’re just there to make up the numbers and give one or two of their supporters a 'look how far we've fallen' anecdote. It's a terrible footballing cliché but I'm just going to enjoy the match and keep my fingers crossed that we manage to give them a scare or two before bowing gracefully out of the competition.
Hoping for more than that would be silly... wouldn't it? ;-)
It's a hearty "phew!" to be exhaled too because this game wasn’t quite as straight forward as what the score line above may lead you to believe. At face value it suggests that Mossley may have dominated proceedings and to be fair they did - controlling virtually all but a small percentage of the play - but their extraordinary ability to do so while remaining one scuffed pass away from disaster meant that the finger nails of the home fans would not go on unbitten for long stretches of this FA Cup 3rd Qualifying Round replay.
The pattern of the game was set out early on with Mossley looking to attack their opponent’s goal at every available opportunity (to wildly varying degrees of success) and the Lincolnshire side focussed on attacking anything that moved; a tactic which saw them come into contact with the ball occasionally and the ankles of men in white shirts slightly more often. Within the first five minutes alone there were three challenges perpetrated by the visitors that were all worthy a booking yet it was only the third one which received the requisite punishment - a three for one special offer that went on all night and one taken advantage of by far too many players.
For all the possession Mossley had in the opening period they didn’t really create a lot of chances with it. There were plenty of crosses and cut backs from wide positions but rarely did they lead to Railway’s goal being troubled. Only twice in the first half hour was keeper Mario Ziccardi was called upon to rescue his side; the first time to deny Ben Richardson after the right back had made one of his trademark darts into the box and the second to keep out a fizzing shot from the edge of the area by Mike Fish. The closest Mossley actually came to taking the lead was when the ball grazed the cross bar after a low cross from Steve Settle ricocheted off the knee of a defender.
As the half wore on Lincoln began to get a little more adventurous and their back line started to sit a little closer to the halfway line than their own 18 yard line. Given how leaden footed their defence was compared to Mossley’s forward line it looked and was soon proven to be a bad idea. A simple through ball gave Mike Oates a free run on goal and he calmly placed the ball past Ziccardi to give the home side the lead. Although looking at the video of the goal, it seems it needed the help of one of the many and infamous Seel Park bumps to take it over the leg of a covering defender as well.
Over the remaining seven minutes of the half Lincoln abandoned their short lived positive approach to the game and returned to the more robust style they’d ‘entertained’ the crowd with previously. I truthfully don’t think the game went on for more than twenty seconds without the referee calling a halt to proceedings for a foul. The match would restart, a group of players would cluster round the ball before one player in a white shirt was suddenly two foot higher (and more horizontal) than everyone else, at which point the whistle would blow, Mossley were given a free-kick and the cycle would begin again. Not even the interval brought an end to the combativeness as the walk back to the changing rooms took three minutes longer than expected due to the first players to leave the pitch having what is commonly described as an ‘altercation in the tunnel.’
Still, things were looking good for Mossley. One up at the break against a team that already looked dead on their feet and one that seemed highly unlikely to finish the match with eleven players on the pitch. And if you think that’s a cue for the next paragraph to begin with the word however, you’re not wrong.
However something happened while the teams were devouring orange segments, drinking energy boosting coloured water or whatever it is players do between halves. Mossley returned to the field of play looking a shadow of the side they were fifteen minutes earlier - full of nerves, misplaced passes and leaden of boot - while Lincoln emerged from the changing rooms like they’d spent the interval channelling the gods of football.
I speak with all honesty when I say that if it wasn’t for the fact that their faces were the same you could have sworn they’d replaced their entire team with ringers, because for ten minutes after the restart they ran rings round us. If I hadn’t been fretting about what this turn of events could mean I might have been impressed with how Lincoln were playing. The fretting didn’t last long though because it was quickly superseded by a full blown collective panic attack when the visitors pulled level; another moment in which Mossley didn't cover themselves in any glory defensively. A failure to clear the ball, an opponent allowed time to put a cross into the area, an attacker winning a header in the six yard box, a man in acres of space at the back post... it was like a compilation of Mossley's recent worst bits - Now That's What I Call Schoolboy Defending Vol 10/11
Even though they had us on the proverbial ropes by the simple act of playing decent football, Lincoln couldn't help themselves from reverting back to the Bruce Lee impressions they were 'delighting' us with in the first half and one spectacularly unnecessary challenge outside their own box later, Mossley were presented with a free-kick from which they were able to retake the lead. Ben Richardson’s delivery was headed back across the face of the goal by Aaron Chalmers and Oates notched his second of the night from close range.
At this point I'd like to say that the wobbles stopped and the Lilywhites strode purposefully onto victory but they didn't. It took a fantastic save from Peter Collinge and the flag of an assistant referee to stop Lincoln drawing level again though the butterflies in the pits of the supporters’ stomachs were settled when the Lilywhites gave their lead a cushion. And a smart little goal it was too with Lee Blackshaw flicking the ball past Ziccardi with the back of his heel. A moment I believe the word 'deft' was invented for.
With time ebbing away and the game slipping from them with every passing second, Lincoln once again set about their opponents legs with great gusto and I'm sure they'll be disappointed that, thanks to the increasing leniency of the referee, they didn't take their card count into double figures. Still, a total of seven yellow cards isn't something to be sniffed at for ninety minutes work.
”Hiiiiiii-ya!” And the referee reaches for his pocket once again...
Three became four for Mossley in the closing stages of the match when Mark Connor bundled the ball over the line following more good work from Blackshaw and that was it: the last hurrah on what eventually turned out to be good night for the majority of people situated within Seel Park.
If you can blank out the jittery period following the interval, there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful about this result and performance. First of all there’s the win and the cheque in the post from the FA that comes with it. Secondly, and even taking into account the lower league status of the opposition, this was arguably our best display at Seel Park this season. It wasn’t fantastic but it was a class above the other showings I’ve seen in terms of spirit and ideas.
And if you think that the last paragraph is a little too upbeat for this blog then I should balance it out by saying that the defence looks frighteningly porous at times. Until we start to look a bit more solid we run a real risk of being punished heavily by good sides for the laxness we seem unable to shake.
Still, I'm sure there'll be plenty of time in the comings weeks and months to grumble about the whys and woes - defensive or otherwise – that come with following this club. Till then though it would be silly not to take time out and admire the accomplishment of reaching the 4th Qualifying Round of the FA Cup for the first time in over two decades.
Better still is the fact that there's no pressure in the next round. Our opponents Darlington are three leagues above us and expected to win.; we’re just there to make up the numbers and give one or two of their supporters a 'look how far we've fallen' anecdote. It's a terrible footballing cliché but I'm just going to enjoy the match and keep my fingers crossed that we manage to give them a scare or two before bowing gracefully out of the competition.
Hoping for more than that would be silly... wouldn't it? ;-)
Lincoln Moorlands Railway 1 - 1 Mossley
To go or not to go: that is the question that now arises for me in regards to the replay that resulted from Mossley’s recent excursion to Lincolnshire in the FA Cup.
The hesitancy in deciding whether or not to lumber Seel Park with my presence for the re-match stems on this occasion though from a sense of selflessness rather than the other reasons which has seen me miss or come close to not attending games since April.
You see, I think that I may be some kind of a jinx. I’ve seen five of the six home games Mossley have played so far this season and witnessed them win only once. And even in that solitary (and slightly fortuitous) victory against Garforth, the performances on the pitch have left something to be desired; there has been very little to be effusive about. However, in that one home match I didn’t attend not only did Mossley win (an FA Cup match too), they did so by a margin of more than one goal and put in what was apparently a good performance to boot.
So you can see my quandary. Do I go and run the risk of putting the kiss of death on proceedings or do I stay at home for the greater good? Decisions, decisions, decisons.
It’s a choice I wouldn’t be forced to make though if Mossley could put away their chances as the report on the Lincoln game, along with numerous comments elsewhere, suggests that it was the latest instalment of the Lilywhites ‘Cow’s Bum and Banjo’ show. On the plus side (and it’s a major plus) we didn’t lose and we appeared to have at least made our opponents keeper work up a bit of a sweat – something I sadly haven’t seen at Seel Park on anything other than warm days this season.
Should we win the replay (and that’s nowhere close to being a foregone conclusion by any stretch of the imagination – it is Mossley we’re talking about after all) we’ll be welcoming Darlington to Seel Park for the 4th Qualifying Round; a team who it’s fair to say haven’t had the best of times recently.
We’ve played Darlington once before and that was in the First Round Proper of the same competition 27 long, long, “good grief do I feel old” years ago when we lost a five goal thriller to the Quakers at Feethams. That is to say they scored five goals and were rather thrilled about it.
And such is the weird way that peculiar coincidences are thrown up, after not playing Darlington for almost three decades we’ll be facing them twice in the space of five days should Lincoln allow us to overcome them; three times if the fixture goes to a replay because the youth team are due to take on the Yorkshire side’s youngsters in the FA Youth Cup on the following Wednesday.
Alas, it all depends on which Mossley turns up for the replay on Tuesday against Lincoln: the ‘good’ Mossley or the ‘bad’ Mossley. The only thing we know for certain is that with our current lights it’s going to be hard to tell.
The hesitancy in deciding whether or not to lumber Seel Park with my presence for the re-match stems on this occasion though from a sense of selflessness rather than the other reasons which has seen me miss or come close to not attending games since April.
You see, I think that I may be some kind of a jinx. I’ve seen five of the six home games Mossley have played so far this season and witnessed them win only once. And even in that solitary (and slightly fortuitous) victory against Garforth, the performances on the pitch have left something to be desired; there has been very little to be effusive about. However, in that one home match I didn’t attend not only did Mossley win (an FA Cup match too), they did so by a margin of more than one goal and put in what was apparently a good performance to boot.
So you can see my quandary. Do I go and run the risk of putting the kiss of death on proceedings or do I stay at home for the greater good? Decisions, decisions, decisons.
It’s a choice I wouldn’t be forced to make though if Mossley could put away their chances as the report on the Lincoln game, along with numerous comments elsewhere, suggests that it was the latest instalment of the Lilywhites ‘Cow’s Bum and Banjo’ show. On the plus side (and it’s a major plus) we didn’t lose and we appeared to have at least made our opponents keeper work up a bit of a sweat – something I sadly haven’t seen at Seel Park on anything other than warm days this season.
Should we win the replay (and that’s nowhere close to being a foregone conclusion by any stretch of the imagination – it is Mossley we’re talking about after all) we’ll be welcoming Darlington to Seel Park for the 4th Qualifying Round; a team who it’s fair to say haven’t had the best of times recently.
We’ve played Darlington once before and that was in the First Round Proper of the same competition 27 long, long, “good grief do I feel old” years ago when we lost a five goal thriller to the Quakers at Feethams. That is to say they scored five goals and were rather thrilled about it.
And such is the weird way that peculiar coincidences are thrown up, after not playing Darlington for almost three decades we’ll be facing them twice in the space of five days should Lincoln allow us to overcome them; three times if the fixture goes to a replay because the youth team are due to take on the Yorkshire side’s youngsters in the FA Youth Cup on the following Wednesday.
Alas, it all depends on which Mossley turns up for the replay on Tuesday against Lincoln: the ‘good’ Mossley or the ‘bad’ Mossley. The only thing we know for certain is that with our current lights it’s going to be hard to tell.
Kidsgrove Athletic 1 - 4 Mossley
Time constraints and the fact that I'm still in a state of shock at this result means this is going to brief... okay, own up! Which one of you just cheered?
My state of disbelief in the 4-1 scoreline comes purely through the fact that a mere three days earlier, the game which lead to this replay suggested that five goals and a scintillating performance from one of the teams taking part would be the second to last thing to happen. The last thing of course being David Icke invading the pitch on the back of an aluminium foil covered giraffe and interrupting the game for five minutes while the theme tune to 80's Saturday morning kids show Starfleet played over the p.a. system.
That's not to say that the not particularly loveable crackpot didn't take to the field of play while riding African wildlife, I wasn't there so I don't know for sure. It certainly isn't mentioned in the only report on the game that exists anywhere in the known universe so I think it's safe to assume that it didn't as it probably would have been worthy of a sentence or two.
Accompanying the £2000 in prize money for emerging victorious from this brush with an old NWCFL foe is the chance to take on another familiar opponent in the next round of the FA Trophy: Shepshed Dynamo, who we still have to thank for our Unibond First Division title in 2006.
If you cast your minds back you'll remember that we practically imploded in the tail end of that season and if it hadn't been for Dynamo beating Fleetwood and Kendal in the final week we wouldn't have stumbled over the finishing line in the championship race. Actually a better metaphor is that we toppled over well before the finish and Shepshed were kind enough to move the line to behind where we fell. So thank them graciously when we turn up at Butthole Lane next week for their part in enabling us to win a bit of silverware.
My state of disbelief in the 4-1 scoreline comes purely through the fact that a mere three days earlier, the game which lead to this replay suggested that five goals and a scintillating performance from one of the teams taking part would be the second to last thing to happen. The last thing of course being David Icke invading the pitch on the back of an aluminium foil covered giraffe and interrupting the game for five minutes while the theme tune to 80's Saturday morning kids show Starfleet played over the p.a. system.
That's not to say that the not particularly loveable crackpot didn't take to the field of play while riding African wildlife, I wasn't there so I don't know for sure. It certainly isn't mentioned in the only report on the game that exists anywhere in the known universe so I think it's safe to assume that it didn't as it probably would have been worthy of a sentence or two.
Accompanying the £2000 in prize money for emerging victorious from this brush with an old NWCFL foe is the chance to take on another familiar opponent in the next round of the FA Trophy: Shepshed Dynamo, who we still have to thank for our Unibond First Division title in 2006.
If you cast your minds back you'll remember that we practically imploded in the tail end of that season and if it hadn't been for Dynamo beating Fleetwood and Kendal in the final week we wouldn't have stumbled over the finishing line in the championship race. Actually a better metaphor is that we toppled over well before the finish and Shepshed were kind enough to move the line to behind where we fell. So thank them graciously when we turn up at Butthole Lane next week for their part in enabling us to win a bit of silverware.
Mossley 1 - 1 Kidsgrove Athletic
If you’re somebody who visits this blog in the seemingly forlorn hope of one day reading a match report in which the word count doesn’t approach four figures, then today is the one you’ve been waiting for.
I’d like to be able to bring you (or indeed inflict on you if you only come here for the sole purpose of having your sensibilities offended) my usual outpouring of meandering flimflammery but the nature of this match makes it impossible to do just that. I mean, how do you write about an FA Trophy game in which next to nothing happened? As it turns out, the answer to that question is ‘with great difficulty’.
The opening period was as dire a half of football as I’ve seen in quite some time. Nothing of any note happened at all apart from the wind blowing, the birds chirruping and everybody very, very slowly getting 45 minutes older. A small frog also appeared on the edge of the pitch midway through the half and the fact that this has got a mention and a photograph should be a good indicator as to just how bad things were.
A frog. Probably as bored as us too.
Eight minutes after the interval the tedium was finally broken when not only was there a shot, it was on target and it hit the back of the net too. By this stage of proceedings I don’t think supporters would have cared which side scored as long it meant something had happened but thankfully for the home fans it came in Mossley’s favour; Mike Oates dinking the ball over a couple of players and the line with what the tabloids would probably call a ‘cheeky little lob.’ And should you so wish, you can watch it over and over again:
Moments later Connor Hampson scuffed a shot wide when it looked easier to score and with it came the end of the brief flurry of excitement, the game quickly returning to its pre-goal dreariness. And, oh, how the Lilywhite supporters wish it had remained that way as with 15 minutes of the match to go and Kidsgrove posing no threat at all, Mossley’s philanthropic nature gifted them an equaliser. That’s far nicer than saying it was yet another almighty cock-up isn’t it?
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before but it began with a ball that should have been cleared but wasn’t. It was then rolled gently to the feet of an opposing player and after being given a guard of honour by the Mossley defenders on way to into the box, he had the time to measure and then hit a low shot past Peter Collinge which pulled his side level.
There was a half-chance or two for Mossley in what time there was remaining but the unwanted prospect of a Tuesday replay loomed larger with every misplaced pass and dead end run. And that’s what the final whistle brought: the chance to re-watch both sides bore one another again in midweek, only this time at a ground 30 miles closer to the equator.
I’d go into further details about how we played, the good and bad points, etc., but that would mean spending even more time dwelling on a game and I need to put out of my head as soon as humanly possible. Especially if I want the nightmares to stop.
I’d like to be able to bring you (or indeed inflict on you if you only come here for the sole purpose of having your sensibilities offended) my usual outpouring of meandering flimflammery but the nature of this match makes it impossible to do just that. I mean, how do you write about an FA Trophy game in which next to nothing happened? As it turns out, the answer to that question is ‘with great difficulty’.
The opening period was as dire a half of football as I’ve seen in quite some time. Nothing of any note happened at all apart from the wind blowing, the birds chirruping and everybody very, very slowly getting 45 minutes older. A small frog also appeared on the edge of the pitch midway through the half and the fact that this has got a mention and a photograph should be a good indicator as to just how bad things were.
A frog. Probably as bored as us too.
Eight minutes after the interval the tedium was finally broken when not only was there a shot, it was on target and it hit the back of the net too. By this stage of proceedings I don’t think supporters would have cared which side scored as long it meant something had happened but thankfully for the home fans it came in Mossley’s favour; Mike Oates dinking the ball over a couple of players and the line with what the tabloids would probably call a ‘cheeky little lob.’ And should you so wish, you can watch it over and over again:
Moments later Connor Hampson scuffed a shot wide when it looked easier to score and with it came the end of the brief flurry of excitement, the game quickly returning to its pre-goal dreariness. And, oh, how the Lilywhite supporters wish it had remained that way as with 15 minutes of the match to go and Kidsgrove posing no threat at all, Mossley’s philanthropic nature gifted them an equaliser. That’s far nicer than saying it was yet another almighty cock-up isn’t it?
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before but it began with a ball that should have been cleared but wasn’t. It was then rolled gently to the feet of an opposing player and after being given a guard of honour by the Mossley defenders on way to into the box, he had the time to measure and then hit a low shot past Peter Collinge which pulled his side level.
There was a half-chance or two for Mossley in what time there was remaining but the unwanted prospect of a Tuesday replay loomed larger with every misplaced pass and dead end run. And that’s what the final whistle brought: the chance to re-watch both sides bore one another again in midweek, only this time at a ground 30 miles closer to the equator.
I’d go into further details about how we played, the good and bad points, etc., but that would mean spending even more time dwelling on a game and I need to put out of my head as soon as humanly possible. Especially if I want the nightmares to stop.
Mossley 2 - 1 Garforth Town
I can recall precisely what time Garforth opened the scoring because a mere 15 seconds earlier I'd looked at my watch, turned to the person next to me and said, "22 minutes gone and absolutely nothing has happened."
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
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
Dunston UTS 1 - 2 Mossley
Because of a lack of time and anything interesting to say I’ll keep this short: we won and a report on the game can be found here.
Mossley’s reward for overcoming their Northern League opponents, besides the rather handy £4000 in prize money, is yet another away fixture in the 3rd Qualifying Round of the FA Cup - a trip eastwards to face NCEL side Lincoln Moorlands Railway who sound more like a heritage train line than a football team. Despite being one of the lowest ranked teams left in the competition they aren’t to be taken too lightly having already dispatched a side of equal standing to Mossley in the pyramid to in an earlier round.
Not that we’d ever under estimate them given Mossley’s long and often miserable history in supposed ‘easier’ ties. As always it will be eyes closed, fingers crossed and hope for the best. On the terraces at least... all being well eyes will be open out on the pitch during the match.
Mossley’s reward for overcoming their Northern League opponents, besides the rather handy £4000 in prize money, is yet another away fixture in the 3rd Qualifying Round of the FA Cup - a trip eastwards to face NCEL side Lincoln Moorlands Railway who sound more like a heritage train line than a football team. Despite being one of the lowest ranked teams left in the competition they aren’t to be taken too lightly having already dispatched a side of equal standing to Mossley in the pyramid to in an earlier round.
Not that we’d ever under estimate them given Mossley’s long and often miserable history in supposed ‘easier’ ties. As always it will be eyes closed, fingers crossed and hope for the best. On the terraces at least... all being well eyes will be open out on the pitch during the match.
Mossley 1 - 2 Trafford
One of the best things about no longer doing the official reports is that I can take my time to compose my thoughts about a game; I'm able to (as Lloyd Grossman used to say) deliberate, cogitate and digest what transpired before offering my considered, if unwanted, opinion. However, as I write, five days after this particular match, I can't come to any conclusion other than that we really were quite a bit poor.
I'll begin though with the positive points that Mossley can take from the game which rather conveniently leads us to the start of the match. With just over ten minutes gone a punched clearance from Trafford keeper Tom Read made its way towards Sam Hare. Following a nice piece of ball control the former Stockport County player... well, you can see for yourself:
Actually, I don't think I should have pluralised the word point in the previous paragraph because after Hare's 25-yard strike it was pretty much downhill for the Lilywhites. Nine minutes and one good save from Jon McIlwaine later, Trafford were level. Mossley's aeons old problem of not being able to defend corners properly allowing centre half Nia Bayunu the time and space just outside the six yard to turn and fire the loose ball into the net.
The closest the Lilywhites came to taking the lead (or even looking like scoring) again came in the 35th minute when Danny Egan headed a Ben Richardson cross against the outside of a post. At the time it looked like a sitter had been missed and there was much muted grumbling, but on second viewing it wasn't the easy chance it had initially appeared due to both the angle and a defender positioned between him and the goal.
There's no question that Mossley should have had a penalty in the opening minute of the second period after Read rugby tackled Mike Fish but, for reasons unknown to everyone other than himself, the referee thought otherwise. And waved away along with the penalty was Mossley's hopes of a place in the next round of the competition. There was the odd bit of pressure on the visitors goal but nothing that raised the expectation levels of the home supporters on the terraces. The report on the Trafford website says that Read performed heroics to keep Mossley at bay but other than a few weak attempts that he didn't even have to dive for (they were more back passes than shots) it's a description that defies some logic.
And if we're going to call bending over occasionally to deal with a bobbling ball heroic, then it's leaves us without a suitable noun to describe his opposite numbers performance at the other end of the pitch because if it hadn't been for some very, very good saves by McIlwaine then the margin of defeat could have been embarrassing.
He didn't have much chance with the goal that put Trafford ahead - a penalty from Scott Barlow after Mossley had decided to end Callum Byrne's lengthy and disturbingly easy run into the penalty area by sending him illegally crashing to the floor. After that though he was the only person who seemed to stand between a one goal defeat and one that made the score Skelmersdale reached in the previous game look narrow.
Over the course of the match, there was some debate as to what the excuse would beif when we lost. In the end it was narrowed down to three possibilities:
Finally, the floodlights. I know I've mentioned them before but they are a problem that requires sorting out. Seriously, something needs doing because there shouldn't be so many dark patches all over the pitch. All it needs is one assistant referee to say that he's having trouble seeing events close to the opposite touchline (and that's not as far fetched as you might think because it's already difficult to make out faces and the numbers on shirts at that distance) and whole can of worms is likely to be opened, starting with a failure to fulfil a fixture. Something is wrong when you can't see who's about to come on as a substitute but you can see the supporter on the terraces behind exploring the contents of his nose with a finger.
Then again, if this performance and the others I've seen this season are what the home fans can expect at Seel Park over the course of the next seven months I'd have no complaints if the dark patches got a lot bigger.
Hopefully though we can bounce back from this defeat and return from our trip to the north east with a place in the next round of the FA Cup secured and a couple of thousand pounds worth of prize money ready to be banked.
Hopefully...
I'll begin though with the positive points that Mossley can take from the game which rather conveniently leads us to the start of the match. With just over ten minutes gone a punched clearance from Trafford keeper Tom Read made its way towards Sam Hare. Following a nice piece of ball control the former Stockport County player... well, you can see for yourself:
Actually, I don't think I should have pluralised the word point in the previous paragraph because after Hare's 25-yard strike it was pretty much downhill for the Lilywhites. Nine minutes and one good save from Jon McIlwaine later, Trafford were level. Mossley's aeons old problem of not being able to defend corners properly allowing centre half Nia Bayunu the time and space just outside the six yard to turn and fire the loose ball into the net.
The closest the Lilywhites came to taking the lead (or even looking like scoring) again came in the 35th minute when Danny Egan headed a Ben Richardson cross against the outside of a post. At the time it looked like a sitter had been missed and there was much muted grumbling, but on second viewing it wasn't the easy chance it had initially appeared due to both the angle and a defender positioned between him and the goal.
There's no question that Mossley should have had a penalty in the opening minute of the second period after Read rugby tackled Mike Fish but, for reasons unknown to everyone other than himself, the referee thought otherwise. And waved away along with the penalty was Mossley's hopes of a place in the next round of the competition. There was the odd bit of pressure on the visitors goal but nothing that raised the expectation levels of the home supporters on the terraces. The report on the Trafford website says that Read performed heroics to keep Mossley at bay but other than a few weak attempts that he didn't even have to dive for (they were more back passes than shots) it's a description that defies some logic.
And if we're going to call bending over occasionally to deal with a bobbling ball heroic, then it's leaves us without a suitable noun to describe his opposite numbers performance at the other end of the pitch because if it hadn't been for some very, very good saves by McIlwaine then the margin of defeat could have been embarrassing.
He didn't have much chance with the goal that put Trafford ahead - a penalty from Scott Barlow after Mossley had decided to end Callum Byrne's lengthy and disturbingly easy run into the penalty area by sending him illegally crashing to the floor. After that though he was the only person who seemed to stand between a one goal defeat and one that made the score Skelmersdale reached in the previous game look narrow.
Over the course of the match, there was some debate as to what the excuse would be
- "It was an experimental side..." In some respect this is true but in another respect it isn't. The non-experimental side we've employed in league games, with the continual changes of personnel and formation, still resembles a work-in-progress so there isn't much difference between the two. Other than that they both show we're still a long way from turning base metal into something yellow and
shiny. - "Saving players for Saturday's game in case they get injured..." Which is an idea I can along with. At least I could if it wasn't for the fact that our more consistent and senior players (the ones you'd most expect to be missing for this very reason) were out on the pitch for the entire 90 minutes. The persons rested in case of knocks and niggles were the ones who've been in and out of the side and ones in need of finding some form.
- "It's a meaningless cup..." It isn't a meaningless cup. It's the League Cup - the biggest competition we have a reasonably realistic chance of doing well in. Okay, there's not much in it for us financially but a win in any competition breeds confidence and that's something that seems to be in short supply. Of course there's a more important game coming up next in terms of money but we now go into it on the back of two straight defeats and with morale not exactly high. And what if we lose that? Suddenly the League Cup doesn't look quite as meaningless.
Finally, the floodlights. I know I've mentioned them before but they are a problem that requires sorting out. Seriously, something needs doing because there shouldn't be so many dark patches all over the pitch. All it needs is one assistant referee to say that he's having trouble seeing events close to the opposite touchline (and that's not as far fetched as you might think because it's already difficult to make out faces and the numbers on shirts at that distance) and whole can of worms is likely to be opened, starting with a failure to fulfil a fixture. Something is wrong when you can't see who's about to come on as a substitute but you can see the supporter on the terraces behind exploring the contents of his nose with a finger.
Then again, if this performance and the others I've seen this season are what the home fans can expect at Seel Park over the course of the next seven months I'd have no complaints if the dark patches got a lot bigger.
Hopefully though we can bounce back from this defeat and return from our trip to the north east with a place in the next round of the FA Cup secured and a couple of thousand pounds worth of prize money ready to be banked.
Hopefully...
Mossley 1 - 4 Skelmersdale United
4:40pm It's 1-1 and the home supporters are hoping that Mossley can hang on for what would be a creditable draw against a good but not spectacular Skelmersdale side.
4:45pm It's 4-1 to a good but not spectacular Skelmersdale side and the home supporters are hoping that their opponents tally won't reach double figures over the course of the five minutes of added on time.
And that is a true story: a possible point turned into what could have been an even heavier defeat within the space of a few minutes. Say what you like about watching Mossley but it's never ever dull. Often miserable yes, but never boring.
There's an argument that a one-all draw would have been a fairer result but you're not going to read a tale of hard done to and unlucky Mossley here. Despite the close nature of the game, the better side won (they were certainly the side in the ascendency over the final third of the match) and though the winning margin may have been a touch flattering, there can be few complaints about it given Mossley's complicity in allowing Skelmersdale to achieve it.
The game wasn’t exactly overflowing with goalmouth action and the few chances that did present themselves were cheaply spurned. A perfect example of which being the first “he should have scored” moment of the match when after being put clean through on goal Mike Coates could only shoot straight at Radcliffe’s onrushing keeper. And he did the same again when presented with a similar gilt edged opportunity in the opening minute of the second period.
In between these “what if?” moments both sides managed to find the back of the net once; the first team to do so being the visitors. There appeared to be little danger for Mossley and as long-time supporters know, that's when the Lilywhites are at their most vulnerable. For a reason that I'm sure will forever go unexplained, Andy Watson gave the ball away under no pressure to Chris Almond who by way of thanks sped past his gift giver and curled an admittedly impressive shot around Peter Collinge and into the goal.
It could have been two moments after the restart as the home side got a severe case of the wobbles but three minutes later they were level. The perseverance of Ben Richardson and the patience of Mike Fish in biding his time to take a shot combined to allow the latter to stroke home an equaliser. A goal caught for posterity below:
At other points in the opening half Ben Richardson fired a free-kick narrowly wide of an upright and Karl O’Donnell did something similar at the opposite end of the pitch following a superb move involving Paul Byrne and constantly dangerous Paul Woolcott.
Over the past few seasons we’ve become used to Mossley starting the second period of games in a subdued manner – as if someone had spiked the half-time oranges with elephant tranquillisers – so it was quite the pleasant surprise to see the Lilywhites come out after the interval like men possessed. Skelmersdale were run ragged as a couple of chances came and went (including the previously mentioned ‘head in hander’ from Oates) in quick succession but sadly the fire in Mossley’s bellies burned brightly for only five minutes, at which point Skelmersdale slowly began to look like the side most likely to bank the three points if destiny had decreed that there was going to be a winner.
It took a fantastic one handed stop from Peter Collinge to stop Almond putting the visitors ahead in the 55th minute and as Mossley's midfield, which had been fading in and out of existence all afternoon, started to spend most of the time in its invisible phase, the ball began to spend a lot more time in the home sides half of the pitch.
The possession Skelmersdale were enjoying wasn’t being turned into too many shots on goal but there was plenty of alarm in the worrying sight of a red shirt or three loitering unmarked in the box at corners and free-kicks. Therefore it came as no surprise when the two problems of a disappearing midfield and slack marking combined to cause an even bigger problem in the 85th minute. The ball was given away in midfield and carried towards the box with little resistance. This was then followed by a slapdash attempt at clearing a cross which allowed Steve Akrigg, one of two United players stood on their own on the edge of the six yard to knock the loose ball home.
One minute later. Another ball given away, another player allowed to run towards goal unimpeded, another player picking the ball up with no-one breathing down his neck and another goal.
Two minutes after that... well, you can see for yourself below:
Of course the last two goals did come in part due to Mossley 'pushing up' in search of an equaliser but they were, the third especially, still avoidable.
I'm not going to do a lengthy inquest on this game because I want to keep my promise of not being too critical this early into the season. Plus I'd only for the most part be repeating the criticisms I put in the report for the Radcliffe game as the same problems still exist. And they’re problems that need addressing and quickly too if we don't want to get dragged into a fight at the foot of the table this early into a new campaign.
It wasn’t all bad though. We managed a few more shots at target than in the previous two home games (note the word at and not on) but Fish’s well taken leveller apart, not one was hit from inside the Skelmersdale penalty area. And that’s not down to something that’s going to be cured simply by a change of luck.
Oh yes, luck. I've heard a few comments that it's the lack of it which is to blame for our points tally currently standing at five out of a possible eighteen. I can accept a chance occurrence accounting for a slipped point here or there but when your six games into a new league campaign and already bemoaned fortune (or rather the lack of it) in four of them, then maybe there are problems fate won’t fix.
It's still early days though and if the occasional flourishes of promise that have been glimpsed in the home league games are nurtured, there's plenty to look forward to. Conversely, well... I don't need to go there do I?
Maybe a victory over Trafford in the League Cup can get us back on track again? Or at the very least somewhere in the vicinity of the track. But then given the recent history between the two sides the only things that are definite are some less than harmonious interactions between supporters and players and the writers cramp the referee will get.
Not to worry though. Even if it comes to the worst and the football is of the kind that makes grown men cry in despair, it's still going to be a better alternative to stopping at home and watching Holby City.
4:45pm It's 4-1 to a good but not spectacular Skelmersdale side and the home supporters are hoping that their opponents tally won't reach double figures over the course of the five minutes of added on time.
And that is a true story: a possible point turned into what could have been an even heavier defeat within the space of a few minutes. Say what you like about watching Mossley but it's never ever dull. Often miserable yes, but never boring.
There's an argument that a one-all draw would have been a fairer result but you're not going to read a tale of hard done to and unlucky Mossley here. Despite the close nature of the game, the better side won (they were certainly the side in the ascendency over the final third of the match) and though the winning margin may have been a touch flattering, there can be few complaints about it given Mossley's complicity in allowing Skelmersdale to achieve it.
The game wasn’t exactly overflowing with goalmouth action and the few chances that did present themselves were cheaply spurned. A perfect example of which being the first “he should have scored” moment of the match when after being put clean through on goal Mike Coates could only shoot straight at Radcliffe’s onrushing keeper. And he did the same again when presented with a similar gilt edged opportunity in the opening minute of the second period.
In between these “what if?” moments both sides managed to find the back of the net once; the first team to do so being the visitors. There appeared to be little danger for Mossley and as long-time supporters know, that's when the Lilywhites are at their most vulnerable. For a reason that I'm sure will forever go unexplained, Andy Watson gave the ball away under no pressure to Chris Almond who by way of thanks sped past his gift giver and curled an admittedly impressive shot around Peter Collinge and into the goal.
It could have been two moments after the restart as the home side got a severe case of the wobbles but three minutes later they were level. The perseverance of Ben Richardson and the patience of Mike Fish in biding his time to take a shot combined to allow the latter to stroke home an equaliser. A goal caught for posterity below:
At other points in the opening half Ben Richardson fired a free-kick narrowly wide of an upright and Karl O’Donnell did something similar at the opposite end of the pitch following a superb move involving Paul Byrne and constantly dangerous Paul Woolcott.
Over the past few seasons we’ve become used to Mossley starting the second period of games in a subdued manner – as if someone had spiked the half-time oranges with elephant tranquillisers – so it was quite the pleasant surprise to see the Lilywhites come out after the interval like men possessed. Skelmersdale were run ragged as a couple of chances came and went (including the previously mentioned ‘head in hander’ from Oates) in quick succession but sadly the fire in Mossley’s bellies burned brightly for only five minutes, at which point Skelmersdale slowly began to look like the side most likely to bank the three points if destiny had decreed that there was going to be a winner.
It took a fantastic one handed stop from Peter Collinge to stop Almond putting the visitors ahead in the 55th minute and as Mossley's midfield, which had been fading in and out of existence all afternoon, started to spend most of the time in its invisible phase, the ball began to spend a lot more time in the home sides half of the pitch.
The possession Skelmersdale were enjoying wasn’t being turned into too many shots on goal but there was plenty of alarm in the worrying sight of a red shirt or three loitering unmarked in the box at corners and free-kicks. Therefore it came as no surprise when the two problems of a disappearing midfield and slack marking combined to cause an even bigger problem in the 85th minute. The ball was given away in midfield and carried towards the box with little resistance. This was then followed by a slapdash attempt at clearing a cross which allowed Steve Akrigg, one of two United players stood on their own on the edge of the six yard to knock the loose ball home.
One minute later. Another ball given away, another player allowed to run towards goal unimpeded, another player picking the ball up with no-one breathing down his neck and another goal.
Two minutes after that... well, you can see for yourself below:
Of course the last two goals did come in part due to Mossley 'pushing up' in search of an equaliser but they were, the third especially, still avoidable.
I'm not going to do a lengthy inquest on this game because I want to keep my promise of not being too critical this early into the season. Plus I'd only for the most part be repeating the criticisms I put in the report for the Radcliffe game as the same problems still exist. And they’re problems that need addressing and quickly too if we don't want to get dragged into a fight at the foot of the table this early into a new campaign.
It wasn’t all bad though. We managed a few more shots at target than in the previous two home games (note the word at and not on) but Fish’s well taken leveller apart, not one was hit from inside the Skelmersdale penalty area. And that’s not down to something that’s going to be cured simply by a change of luck.
Oh yes, luck. I've heard a few comments that it's the lack of it which is to blame for our points tally currently standing at five out of a possible eighteen. I can accept a chance occurrence accounting for a slipped point here or there but when your six games into a new league campaign and already bemoaned fortune (or rather the lack of it) in four of them, then maybe there are problems fate won’t fix.
It's still early days though and if the occasional flourishes of promise that have been glimpsed in the home league games are nurtured, there's plenty to look forward to. Conversely, well... I don't need to go there do I?
Maybe a victory over Trafford in the League Cup can get us back on track again? Or at the very least somewhere in the vicinity of the track. But then given the recent history between the two sides the only things that are definite are some less than harmonious interactions between supporters and players and the writers cramp the referee will get.
Not to worry though. Even if it comes to the worst and the football is of the kind that makes grown men cry in despair, it's still going to be a better alternative to stopping at home and watching Holby City.
AFC Fylde 0 - 2 Mossley
A 2 - 0 win in a league fixture! Away from home too! I know... wow!
I'm sorry if the incredulity contained in the opening paragraph seems somewhat unsupportive for a supporter but show me a Mossley fan who seriously thought we'd go to Fylde and win and I'll show you someone desperately trying to ignore the fact their leg wear has caught aflame.
This is what constitutes a shock. Mossley, whose league form hasn't been great, beating a side (quite convincingly too by all accounts) who've splashed a considerable sum of cash around on players during the summer might not be a result of David slaying Goliath proportions, but it is a signal to other teams that we may not be quite the pushovers our pre-game league position suggested.
However, the big question is was it a one-off? That one moment in many where fortune chooses to smile on you or is it really the start of better things? The next match should give a pointer to which of the two options is the correct one, especially as it's Skelmersdale who'll be our opponents: a bogey side if ever there was one. Although lets be honest, if you were blindfolded and stuck a pin in the club index of the Non-League Directory, 99 times out of a 100 you'd hit a team who were a bogey side for the Lilywhites.
Back to the game though and the official Mossley report on the game is situated here. The Fylde version of events can be found via this link while you can read the nice things their supporters are saying about the Lilywhites display on their forum here.
Onwards and upwards. Or onwards and downwards... you never can tell with this club.
I'm sorry if the incredulity contained in the opening paragraph seems somewhat unsupportive for a supporter but show me a Mossley fan who seriously thought we'd go to Fylde and win and I'll show you someone desperately trying to ignore the fact their leg wear has caught aflame.
This is what constitutes a shock. Mossley, whose league form hasn't been great, beating a side (quite convincingly too by all accounts) who've splashed a considerable sum of cash around on players during the summer might not be a result of David slaying Goliath proportions, but it is a signal to other teams that we may not be quite the pushovers our pre-game league position suggested.
However, the big question is was it a one-off? That one moment in many where fortune chooses to smile on you or is it really the start of better things? The next match should give a pointer to which of the two options is the correct one, especially as it's Skelmersdale who'll be our opponents: a bogey side if ever there was one. Although lets be honest, if you were blindfolded and stuck a pin in the club index of the Non-League Directory, 99 times out of a 100 you'd hit a team who were a bogey side for the Lilywhites.
Back to the game though and the official Mossley report on the game is situated here. The Fylde version of events can be found via this link while you can read the nice things their supporters are saying about the Lilywhites display on their forum here.
Onwards and upwards. Or onwards and downwards... you never can tell with this club.
Glossop North End 0 - 4 Mossley
Other than to criticise the parentage of match officials or pass judgement on their ocular failings, it's rare that the views of opposing supporters on the same game are ever alike.
Looking at various message boards, twitter feeds and reports in the aftermath of this fixture - as well as listening to the thoughts of people who actually ventured to Surrey Street – it appears that this match was the catalyst for one of those rare occurrences where there's a unanimous consensus about this fixture. The agreement being that Glossop were absolutely atrocious.
With not being in attendance myself, it’s impossible to say just how much of North End’s poor showing was down to Mossley just being good. However, no matter how deep the depths of awfulness Glossop plumbed were, the Lilywhites still had to put the ball in the back of the net (although the home side did do it for them to open the scoring for the afternoon). That they did so four times was not only impressive but something of a shock as well to someone who has only seen them manage two shots on target in the 180 minutes of football he’s witnessed so far this season.
Is it a result that will have the knock-on effect of finally kick-starting a faltering league campaign? Time, as always, will tell but with both cash splashing Fylde and bogey side Skelmersdale to come over the course of the next six days, I’m not getting my hopes up too much – if at all.
Anyhoo, if you want to know more about Mossley’s cup victory then reports are available here, here and here. Photos on the other hand can be viewed by following this link and this one
.
Besides £3,000 in prize money Mossley’s reward for knocking four unanswered goals past Stuart Williams is all the joy of a trip to the North East to face Dunston UTS of the Northern League. Smile though, at least it’s not Esh Winning.
Looking at various message boards, twitter feeds and reports in the aftermath of this fixture - as well as listening to the thoughts of people who actually ventured to Surrey Street – it appears that this match was the catalyst for one of those rare occurrences where there's a unanimous consensus about this fixture. The agreement being that Glossop were absolutely atrocious.
With not being in attendance myself, it’s impossible to say just how much of North End’s poor showing was down to Mossley just being good. However, no matter how deep the depths of awfulness Glossop plumbed were, the Lilywhites still had to put the ball in the back of the net (although the home side did do it for them to open the scoring for the afternoon). That they did so four times was not only impressive but something of a shock as well to someone who has only seen them manage two shots on target in the 180 minutes of football he’s witnessed so far this season.
Is it a result that will have the knock-on effect of finally kick-starting a faltering league campaign? Time, as always, will tell but with both cash splashing Fylde and bogey side Skelmersdale to come over the course of the next six days, I’m not getting my hopes up too much – if at all.
Anyhoo, if you want to know more about Mossley’s cup victory then reports are available here, here and here. Photos on the other hand can be viewed by following this link and this one
.
Besides £3,000 in prize money Mossley’s reward for knocking four unanswered goals past Stuart Williams is all the joy of a trip to the North East to face Dunston UTS of the Northern League. Smile though, at least it’s not Esh Winning.
Mossley 1 - 1 Radcliffe Borough
Hold on to your hats readers because I'm about to drop a bombshell. This posting will not contain second hand information of what transpired in a Mossley game but an authentic eye-witness account because I actually attended a game.
You’ve had to pull yourself up off the floor with that little revelation haven’t you?
Yes, for only the second time since April I decided to take up a spot on the terraces at a fixture involving the Lilywhites and for a considerable amount (okay, almost all) of the time I spent standing on those concrete steps I was rueing the wisdom of choosing to do so.
If that last sentence doesn’t provide you with a clue as to what the general tone of the following report may be, it’s at this point, before I get into the meat and bones of this post, that I should perhaps proffer a word of warning. If you're one of those supporters who gets upset at the merest hint of a criticism aimed anywhere within the vicinity of Mossley or annoyed that someone has a view that's not coloured by some rose tinted eye furniture then stop reading now.
Seriously, do something else. Follow this link and watch some cutesy-wutesy kittens because you're not going to like what follows.
I'll wait while you go...
...
...
...
Okay, if you're still here don't say I didn't warn you.
I'm unimpressed. Utterly so. And not just about the football either but it's that which I'll start with.
As Smiffy says in his excellent and much more succinct take on the game on Six Tame Sides, the reports of an improved Mossley performance at Warrington three days earlier weren’t exactly being backed up by everyone who attended that game. However, whether that performance had been given a sugar coating or not, it was still enough to induce a bit of hope in those of us who’d given Cantilever Park a wide berth that we were about to see a better display from the men in white shirts than what we previously may have witnessed; a bit of promise that suggested our league campaign and rise up the table was about to begin.
Sigh.
If you were a Radcliffe fan the game got off to a fantastic start. Not so much if you were watching from a Mossley perspective and watching is the operative word when it comes to describing the Lilywhites part in Borough's third minute opener.
While I admit that I can occasionally be prone to the odd touch of exaggeration, I can say here without a word of a lie that not one player in a white shirt moved as a free-kick was swung into the Mossley box. And motionless they remained as Shaun Connor ran through a crowded area to volley the dropping ball past Peter Collinge; the sound of the small cluster of visiting supporters celebrating drowned out by the noise made by a 100+ pairs of eyes blinking in disbelief at what they’d witnessed.
With their defence and midfield dropping deeper towards their own penalty area after the goal, Radcliffe possibly thought that Mossley were going to come at them all guns blazing in response to the early bruising they’d been dealt. Instead we came at them with a water pistol containing no water.
Mossley’s answer to going behind was non-existent. Barring the occasional glimpse of some nice passing in and around the vicinity of the halfway line, the home team were no threat at all. As a supporter there aren’t many sights in a football match more dispiriting than seeing your team losing and relying on some insanely hopeful pot shots, from a distance no less than 30 yards from goal, to rescue the situation.
Credit is due in part to some impressive work in midfield and defence from the visitors but the home team were hardly helping themselves by showing nothing in the way of invention or nous. With no width at all to the side everything was being channelled down the middle of the pitch to where a lone forward was being marked out of the game by two centre halves. That’s right: at home to a lower table side and needing a win, we were playing with one man upfront. Actually scratch that because there were times we had a no man attack; the designated forward having drifted back past the midfielders in search of a ball he was seeing precious little of.
To be fair I’m sure that the actual formation we were using was 4-3-3 (or a 4-3-2-1) but for the most part it was 4-5 players in the centre circle-1 and the game became stuck in a loop: (1) A nice passing triangle from Mossley on the halfway line, (2) possession surrendered cheaply, (3) Radcliffe clear the danger easily, (4) Go to (1).
And it continued like that well into the second period. Even the introduction of another forward couldn’t instil a bit of variety to Mossley’s approach play, although Radcliffe’s keeper Nick Culkin was finally called on to make a save. It may have been from one of his defenders mishit clearances but we're going to count it as a shot on target for Mossley. Then out of nothing the home side were level with a goal richly deserving of being scored in a better game. Substitute Mike Fish received the ball on the corner of the Radcliffe box and on let fly on the half-volley with a looping effort which dropped over Culkin and into the net.
If Michael Oates hadn't scooped the ball over the crossbar moments later, after the Borough keeper had spilled a speculative effort from distance directly into his path, then there'd have been a goodly number of delightfully flabbergasted and happy people within Seel Park. Instead they just became frustrated as the promise of a great comeback was derailed by going back again to funnelling every attack we had down the middle of the pitch.
This was good news for Radcliffe who were starting to look a little ragged for the first time, but now they could get back to doing what they’d done so well for the first hour and a bit of the game: stifling Mossley and forcing them into errors before attempting to launch a counter attack. And with this approach they nearly snatched a victory in the dying embers of the game; Peter Collinge doing extremely well to tip a swerving, dipping, something else ending in -ing shot from a Borough substitute to safety.
Even though we probably had the lion’s share of possession over the course of the ninety minutes, it definitely feels like that it was a fortunate point won rather than two lost thanks to one moment of individual brilliance.
As my attendance at games has been sparse this season, the only frame of reference I have to judge this Mossley performance against is their display at home to Bamber Bridge last month and it’s a tad concerning because I couldn’t see any improvement whatsoever. If anything there were a few more causes for alarm to add to the list. Being determined though to live up to my promise not to be too critical so early into the new campaign, I shall forego expanding on that inventory of worries for now in the hope that what’s happening is still nothing more than teething trouble for a new team and management.
Having a winger on the pitch could improve things immeasurably. Although to be fair we might be using them now – it’s just that nobody can pick them out at night, which leads me on to something else I wasn’t overly enamoured with: the new floodlights.
I don't know what it was like on the Main Stand side of the ground but from the Hanover Street side it was difficult at times to make out who the players were on the opposite side of the pitch. Not only because of the dark patches in various areas but because of the shadows the lighting caused – leaving players on occasions looking like silhouettes (at some point over the next few days there'll hopefully be a few photos to illustrate some of these points).
I’ve no doubt that this is due to the way each of the individual lights has been angled (a number of them seem to be positioned almost directly downwards rather than out across the playing surface) and if this is indeed the case it should be an easy enough problem to rectify. If it isn’t the case then… well, it doesn’t really bear thinking about.
Finally (there is actually a finally), music was played over the PA system when Mossley scored. To borrow some internet terminology all the kids seem to be using: WTF?
Goal music is a tacky and embarrassing intrusion on the game and there’s a reason why we’ve ridiculed its use at Curzon Ashton for years: because it’s pitiable and not because we were trying to disguise feelings of jealousy at not having it ourselves. Hopefully it’s just a one-off. If it isn’t then our lack of an effective attack could have a silver lining after all.
Fingers crossed for better (and brighter) things soon or else more postings like this are going to make people think of me as the quite the grumpy pants.
You’ve had to pull yourself up off the floor with that little revelation haven’t you?
Yes, for only the second time since April I decided to take up a spot on the terraces at a fixture involving the Lilywhites and for a considerable amount (okay, almost all) of the time I spent standing on those concrete steps I was rueing the wisdom of choosing to do so.
If that last sentence doesn’t provide you with a clue as to what the general tone of the following report may be, it’s at this point, before I get into the meat and bones of this post, that I should perhaps proffer a word of warning. If you're one of those supporters who gets upset at the merest hint of a criticism aimed anywhere within the vicinity of Mossley or annoyed that someone has a view that's not coloured by some rose tinted eye furniture then stop reading now.
Seriously, do something else. Follow this link and watch some cutesy-wutesy kittens because you're not going to like what follows.
I'll wait while you go...
...
...
...
Okay, if you're still here don't say I didn't warn you.
I'm unimpressed. Utterly so. And not just about the football either but it's that which I'll start with.
As Smiffy says in his excellent and much more succinct take on the game on Six Tame Sides, the reports of an improved Mossley performance at Warrington three days earlier weren’t exactly being backed up by everyone who attended that game. However, whether that performance had been given a sugar coating or not, it was still enough to induce a bit of hope in those of us who’d given Cantilever Park a wide berth that we were about to see a better display from the men in white shirts than what we previously may have witnessed; a bit of promise that suggested our league campaign and rise up the table was about to begin.
Sigh.
If you were a Radcliffe fan the game got off to a fantastic start. Not so much if you were watching from a Mossley perspective and watching is the operative word when it comes to describing the Lilywhites part in Borough's third minute opener.
While I admit that I can occasionally be prone to the odd touch of exaggeration, I can say here without a word of a lie that not one player in a white shirt moved as a free-kick was swung into the Mossley box. And motionless they remained as Shaun Connor ran through a crowded area to volley the dropping ball past Peter Collinge; the sound of the small cluster of visiting supporters celebrating drowned out by the noise made by a 100+ pairs of eyes blinking in disbelief at what they’d witnessed.
With their defence and midfield dropping deeper towards their own penalty area after the goal, Radcliffe possibly thought that Mossley were going to come at them all guns blazing in response to the early bruising they’d been dealt. Instead we came at them with a water pistol containing no water.
Mossley’s answer to going behind was non-existent. Barring the occasional glimpse of some nice passing in and around the vicinity of the halfway line, the home team were no threat at all. As a supporter there aren’t many sights in a football match more dispiriting than seeing your team losing and relying on some insanely hopeful pot shots, from a distance no less than 30 yards from goal, to rescue the situation.
Credit is due in part to some impressive work in midfield and defence from the visitors but the home team were hardly helping themselves by showing nothing in the way of invention or nous. With no width at all to the side everything was being channelled down the middle of the pitch to where a lone forward was being marked out of the game by two centre halves. That’s right: at home to a lower table side and needing a win, we were playing with one man upfront. Actually scratch that because there were times we had a no man attack; the designated forward having drifted back past the midfielders in search of a ball he was seeing precious little of.
To be fair I’m sure that the actual formation we were using was 4-3-3 (or a 4-3-2-1) but for the most part it was 4-5 players in the centre circle-1 and the game became stuck in a loop: (1) A nice passing triangle from Mossley on the halfway line, (2) possession surrendered cheaply, (3) Radcliffe clear the danger easily, (4) Go to (1).
And it continued like that well into the second period. Even the introduction of another forward couldn’t instil a bit of variety to Mossley’s approach play, although Radcliffe’s keeper Nick Culkin was finally called on to make a save. It may have been from one of his defenders mishit clearances but we're going to count it as a shot on target for Mossley. Then out of nothing the home side were level with a goal richly deserving of being scored in a better game. Substitute Mike Fish received the ball on the corner of the Radcliffe box and on let fly on the half-volley with a looping effort which dropped over Culkin and into the net.
If Michael Oates hadn't scooped the ball over the crossbar moments later, after the Borough keeper had spilled a speculative effort from distance directly into his path, then there'd have been a goodly number of delightfully flabbergasted and happy people within Seel Park. Instead they just became frustrated as the promise of a great comeback was derailed by going back again to funnelling every attack we had down the middle of the pitch.
This was good news for Radcliffe who were starting to look a little ragged for the first time, but now they could get back to doing what they’d done so well for the first hour and a bit of the game: stifling Mossley and forcing them into errors before attempting to launch a counter attack. And with this approach they nearly snatched a victory in the dying embers of the game; Peter Collinge doing extremely well to tip a swerving, dipping, something else ending in -ing shot from a Borough substitute to safety.
Even though we probably had the lion’s share of possession over the course of the ninety minutes, it definitely feels like that it was a fortunate point won rather than two lost thanks to one moment of individual brilliance.
As my attendance at games has been sparse this season, the only frame of reference I have to judge this Mossley performance against is their display at home to Bamber Bridge last month and it’s a tad concerning because I couldn’t see any improvement whatsoever. If anything there were a few more causes for alarm to add to the list. Being determined though to live up to my promise not to be too critical so early into the new campaign, I shall forego expanding on that inventory of worries for now in the hope that what’s happening is still nothing more than teething trouble for a new team and management.
Having a winger on the pitch could improve things immeasurably. Although to be fair we might be using them now – it’s just that nobody can pick them out at night, which leads me on to something else I wasn’t overly enamoured with: the new floodlights.
I don't know what it was like on the Main Stand side of the ground but from the Hanover Street side it was difficult at times to make out who the players were on the opposite side of the pitch. Not only because of the dark patches in various areas but because of the shadows the lighting caused – leaving players on occasions looking like silhouettes (at some point over the next few days there'll hopefully be a few photos to illustrate some of these points).
I’ve no doubt that this is due to the way each of the individual lights has been angled (a number of them seem to be positioned almost directly downwards rather than out across the playing surface) and if this is indeed the case it should be an easy enough problem to rectify. If it isn’t the case then… well, it doesn’t really bear thinking about.
Finally (there is actually a finally), music was played over the PA system when Mossley scored. To borrow some internet terminology all the kids seem to be using: WTF?
Goal music is a tacky and embarrassing intrusion on the game and there’s a reason why we’ve ridiculed its use at Curzon Ashton for years: because it’s pitiable and not because we were trying to disguise feelings of jealousy at not having it ourselves. Hopefully it’s just a one-off. If it isn’t then our lack of an effective attack could have a silver lining after all.
Fingers crossed for better (and brighter) things soon or else more postings like this are going to make people think of me as the quite the grumpy pants.
Warrington Town 1 - 1 Mossley
National Non-League Day and I as a non-league fan wasn't at a non-league game. The shame of it, eh?
I had given some consideration to turning up at the Tameside Stadium to see hosts Curzon take on Witton Albion in the Evo-stik League. However, after mulling over the pros and cons of attending for, ooooh, about six seconds, I decided to stop at home and try to finish off Assassin's Creed II on the X-Box while listening to Tameside Radio's Saturday Sports Show.
And what a wise decision that turned out to be as not only did I finally manage to finish wandering around renaissance Italy on my games console, I also avoided a match of unbearable awfulness on Ashton Moss; 90 minutes of soul destroying football that has been lovingly documented for the ages at Beat The First Man.
Not so wise was my choice of programme to listen to on the wireless as for a sports show there was precious little in the way of sport on it. I'm not going to be too critical about it here as the lack of updates from any local games other than the ones involving Stalybridge and Hyde may just have been a one-off. Yes, there were half-time mini-reports from the Curzon and Mossley matches but there were no full-time updates and if you wanted to know the results of any game not involving Hyde or 'Bridge you had to wait till 5:45pm (an hour after the scheduled finish of the matches) to hear them.
Like I say though, it will require another listen to see if this is normal practise and I can't say it's something I'm particularly looking forward to. The thought of possibly spending another tortuous eight minutes listening to two Wet Wet Wet songs played back to back in the hope of hearing a scoreline sends quite a chill shuddering through the bones.
Oh! Mossley's match - I very nearly forgot. It was a one all draw which means the Lilywhites finally get their first point of the season and you can read about the game here. Be warned though as it does contain another tale of fluffed chances and points dropped.
I had given some consideration to turning up at the Tameside Stadium to see hosts Curzon take on Witton Albion in the Evo-stik League. However, after mulling over the pros and cons of attending for, ooooh, about six seconds, I decided to stop at home and try to finish off Assassin's Creed II on the X-Box while listening to Tameside Radio's Saturday Sports Show.
And what a wise decision that turned out to be as not only did I finally manage to finish wandering around renaissance Italy on my games console, I also avoided a match of unbearable awfulness on Ashton Moss; 90 minutes of soul destroying football that has been lovingly documented for the ages at Beat The First Man.
Not so wise was my choice of programme to listen to on the wireless as for a sports show there was precious little in the way of sport on it. I'm not going to be too critical about it here as the lack of updates from any local games other than the ones involving Stalybridge and Hyde may just have been a one-off. Yes, there were half-time mini-reports from the Curzon and Mossley matches but there were no full-time updates and if you wanted to know the results of any game not involving Hyde or 'Bridge you had to wait till 5:45pm (an hour after the scheduled finish of the matches) to hear them.
Like I say though, it will require another listen to see if this is normal practise and I can't say it's something I'm particularly looking forward to. The thought of possibly spending another tortuous eight minutes listening to two Wet Wet Wet songs played back to back in the hope of hearing a scoreline sends quite a chill shuddering through the bones.
Oh! Mossley's match - I very nearly forgot. It was a one all draw which means the Lilywhites finally get their first point of the season and you can read about the game here. Be warned though as it does contain another tale of fluffed chances and points dropped.
Mossley 2 - 0 Witton Albion
The first goals of the new season and, thanks to not conceding any, it's Mossley's first victory of the season too.
First of all apologies for the late appearance of this little links post which was down to me completely forgetting about the game. And it's that little confession which should give you a clue to the fact that I wasn't in attendance.
Instead I was four miles away at the Tameside Stadium where Curzon Ashton were facing Congleton in the FA Cup. Before the 'real supporter' brigade start to get on their high horses (not that I care much if they do as I find it rather amusing), I didn't see any of that match either. Well, there was the occasional glimpse of the ball passing the half way line but that's all I ever saw from my vantage point within the club's function room where I was attending a wedding reception. A lovely 'do' it was too.
Anyway, back to Mossley and if you wish to know what happened in order to put the team into the next round of the FA Cup then head to Mossleyweb and Six Tame Sides. You can also visit the Witton site to see what they say if you so desire. That said, given how long this has taken to appear you've probably been and visited those three places already.
So, as an alternative, why not hop along to Up For The Cup, a blog dedicated the early rounds of the FA Cup, where you'll find a very nice piece about the game.
Mossley's reward for this victory is a short (or depending on the traffic, horrendously long) trip to the High Peaks to face Glossop North End which, given our past meetings, has all the hallmarks of being a potential banana skin. What am I saying, you can probably remove the word potential from that last sentence.
I can't finish this piece though without mentioning the following posting by eligorton which appeared on the Witton Albion forum in the week leading up to the cup fixture with Mossley:
Hubris - the gift that keeps on giving.
First of all apologies for the late appearance of this little links post which was down to me completely forgetting about the game. And it's that little confession which should give you a clue to the fact that I wasn't in attendance.
Instead I was four miles away at the Tameside Stadium where Curzon Ashton were facing Congleton in the FA Cup. Before the 'real supporter' brigade start to get on their high horses (not that I care much if they do as I find it rather amusing), I didn't see any of that match either. Well, there was the occasional glimpse of the ball passing the half way line but that's all I ever saw from my vantage point within the club's function room where I was attending a wedding reception. A lovely 'do' it was too.
Anyway, back to Mossley and if you wish to know what happened in order to put the team into the next round of the FA Cup then head to Mossleyweb and Six Tame Sides. You can also visit the Witton site to see what they say if you so desire. That said, given how long this has taken to appear you've probably been and visited those three places already.
So, as an alternative, why not hop along to Up For The Cup, a blog dedicated the early rounds of the FA Cup, where you'll find a very nice piece about the game.
Mossley's reward for this victory is a short (or depending on the traffic, horrendously long) trip to the High Peaks to face Glossop North End which, given our past meetings, has all the hallmarks of being a potential banana skin. What am I saying, you can probably remove the word potential from that last sentence.
I can't finish this piece though without mentioning the following posting by eligorton which appeared on the Witton Albion forum in the week leading up to the cup fixture with Mossley:
Important game this one. Should be a piece of p*ss,Mossley have had an awful start to the season,no goals scored and a shed full against.
Hubris - the gift that keeps on giving.
Clitheroe 5 - 0 Mossley
I have to be truthful and say that I wasn't expecting Mossley to pick up a win at Clitheroe's Shawbridge ground. And to continue in this vein of honesty I’ve got to confess that I wasn't even expecting a draw either. That leaves only one option and yes, I'm afraid to say it but I was expecting us to lose. In my defence though I didn’t suspect we’d lose quite as badly as we appear to have done.
I appreciate that the above may well look like an exercise in being clever with the benefit of hindsight so I should probably try and describe the thought process which led me to such a conclusion. Unfortunately that’s not going to be easy because it would mean doing something I said I wouldn’t for a month or two. Allow me to explain.
While there were positive aspects about Mossley's performance on Saturday, there were a number of worries too and it’s these hmm's I mentioned in the Bamber Bridge report (or rather the hmm’s I made a point of not mentioning) that I thought a good Clitheroe side would be able to exploit. Of course, with not being at the game I have no idea at all if it was these concerns which ultimately led to the considerable pasting we received (or even if some new ‘hmm’s’ have cropped up) but the result is still the same: a heavy and somewhat embarrassing defeat.
All the grim details of Mossley’s night to forget are on Mossleyweb if you want to know precisely what happened.
The official report is in itself a cause for some alarm. Having done them for the previous three seasons I know that the recollection of events they contain will always tend to be a little rosier than yours, especially after a pretty dismal result and performance. Bad luck will have always played a part, along with poor officiating, and it will never be made to seem as bad as it may have appeared; it’s the literary equivalent of smearing of Vaseline on a camera lens to beautify something with a soft-focus. And if that's still the case this year you've got to wonder how bad things actually were when it contains comments such as:
And
I got slated and labelled not a true supporter when I classed a non-performance in a 4-1 defeat as 'bobbins' last year so goodness knows how uppity the same people are going to get this time round having read that.
Even though we’re just four days into the new season and already six points and sixteen goals behind the team at the top, there’s no point in panicking yet. It’s still a new side and a new management team so it’s going to take a bit more than 180 minutes of competitive football for them to find their feet.
Hopefully not that much more though!
I appreciate that the above may well look like an exercise in being clever with the benefit of hindsight so I should probably try and describe the thought process which led me to such a conclusion. Unfortunately that’s not going to be easy because it would mean doing something I said I wouldn’t for a month or two. Allow me to explain.
While there were positive aspects about Mossley's performance on Saturday, there were a number of worries too and it’s these hmm's I mentioned in the Bamber Bridge report (or rather the hmm’s I made a point of not mentioning) that I thought a good Clitheroe side would be able to exploit. Of course, with not being at the game I have no idea at all if it was these concerns which ultimately led to the considerable pasting we received (or even if some new ‘hmm’s’ have cropped up) but the result is still the same: a heavy and somewhat embarrassing defeat.
All the grim details of Mossley’s night to forget are on Mossleyweb if you want to know precisely what happened.
The official report is in itself a cause for some alarm. Having done them for the previous three seasons I know that the recollection of events they contain will always tend to be a little rosier than yours, especially after a pretty dismal result and performance. Bad luck will have always played a part, along with poor officiating, and it will never be made to seem as bad as it may have appeared; it’s the literary equivalent of smearing of Vaseline on a camera lens to beautify something with a soft-focus. And if that's still the case this year you've got to wonder how bad things actually were when it contains comments such as:
Instead of rolling up their sleeves and showing the fighting spirit that had carried them through the latter half of last season ... they instead showed their collective bellies, rolled over and died
And
this result and the manner in which it came, with the talent available in the current squad, is quite simply unacceptable
I got slated and labelled not a true supporter when I classed a non-performance in a 4-1 defeat as 'bobbins' last year so goodness knows how uppity the same people are going to get this time round having read that.
Even though we’re just four days into the new season and already six points and sixteen goals behind the team at the top, there’s no point in panicking yet. It’s still a new side and a new management team so it’s going to take a bit more than 180 minutes of competitive football for them to find their feet.
Hopefully not that much more though!
Mossley 0 - 1 Bamber Bridge
Having not been to any of the pre-season fixtures I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this opening match. The reports I've read on the friendlies have by and large been positive but one thing all seasoned football supporters know is that friendlies are no indication at all as to what may happen once the bread and butter matches begin.
I doubt there's a club anywhere that doesn't have one highly successful set of pre-season fixtures thats been followed by a league and cup campaign that wouldn't do the term 'woefully abject' justice. And lets face it, Mossley are a club that have had more than just the one.
I'm happy to say though that on this viewing I can see why people were enthused by the displays witnessed over the past month. It's wasn't perfect – and given it's the first match of the season I wasn't expecting it to be – but there was plenty on show to be optimistic about. Conversely however there were things, as C+C Music Factory once put it, to make you go hmmm.
My first thought about Mossley as the two teams lined up for the still pointless pre-match handshaking was how small a side they are. I honestly can't remember a home starting XI at Seel Park as diminutive as this one. More Lilliputians than Lilywhites. And it's impossible to argue that this difference in stature between the two teams didn't play a part in the opening (and only) goal as Michael White barely had to get his feet off the ground to out jump the few defenders in the six yard box and head his side into the lead. The ball hit back of the net in the tenth minute and even at that early stage of the game it was a goal that had been coming.
The match was only four minutes old when Peter Collinge was forced into making an extremely good save to deny Kevin Towey, but the keeper could only stand and watch as Paul Lloyd poked the ball inches wide of the post and his own team mate Aaron Chalmers scrape the top of the crossbar with a wayward header.
There was the merest glimmer of a way back into the game for the home side when Mike Fish capitalised on Luke Atherton's inability to deal with a long ball, forcing Ben Hinchcliffe into making his first save of the afternoon. Sadly however it was to be a rare sighting of the Brig goal.
To say Mossley were under the cosh would be overstating things a little but the Preston based side looked like scoring every time they ventured forward. A reshuffle after half an hour though finally saw Mossley's defence start to... well, look like a defence (mainly due to the fact that there was finally someone on the left side of midfield to give the full back some protection) and they began to enjoy a little more possession than they'd previously been afforded.
Unfortunately though this extra time on the ball was culminating in nothing more than a few crosses into the box which were practice catches for Brig keeper. He was eventually made to work for his corn five minutes from the interval when two Bridge defenders produced a master class in how not to clear your lines when under pressure and played the ball into the path of Steve Settle. His first time shot was probably a little closer to Hinchcliffe than he'd have like it to have been but the keeper still had to produce a fantastic stop to prevent it from levelling the score.
Whether it was thorough the visitors deciding to sit back or Mossley finally hitting their stride, after the break the Lilywhites dominated the lions share of the possession. That's no hyperbole either, they controlled the game and in doing so put together some very nice moves. The down side is that as attractive as their style of play was, it was mostly for nought as time and again it fell apart in the final third of the pitch. A combination of a packed defence and taking an extra touch or three when was none was needed ensured that Hinchcliffe wasn't forced into more heroics. He probably should have been called on to do something, even if it only to pick the ball out of the net, when Andy Watson was left with a free header on the edge of the six yard box but the centre half could only send the ball looping high over the cross bar.
Mossley's cause wasn't being helped by their seeming reluctance to use the width of the pitch as most of their attacking play was being directed down the middle and straight into a barricade of red shirts. The introduction of Osebi Abadaki added a much needed bit of flair and invention into the Lilywhites attacks and the ball finally began to work it's way towards the huge gaps down both flanks.
Unfortunately though the problems with differences in height came into play again as anything other than a low cutback from the byline was comfortably dealt with by the Brig defence. So despite spending almost the entirety of the last half hour of the match with the ball at their feet in the oppositions half of the pitch, all Mossley had to show for their efforts were two shots which drifted past the post from 83rd minute substitute Michael Oates.
If you wish to see some of those misses - near and not so near - then you can by clicking play on the video below. And yes, widescreen! Ooooo...
If football was based on all things being fair then both sides would have had a point each from this game and both would have probably been reasonably happy with it. Neither side deserved to win in the same way neither deserved to lose but lose we did and that's the game; sometimes you don't get what's merited. On the other hand though I'm sure – nay, certain - that over the coming months there'll be more than a few occasions where we'll get more than we should have done out of the game. It's why we love and hate the sport in equal measure.
Looking at Mossley with an optimistic frame of mind, there's plenty to be hopeful about. As a reasonably new side they're only going to get better (please don't let that sentence come back and haunt me) as the team begin to gel and the starting XI becomes more settled. The fact that the team were always looking for the opportunity to play along the floor instead of aimlessly lumping it in the general direction of the opposing goalkeeper bodes well too.
Viewing things from a not quite rose-tinted perspective can wait a while though. It's the first match of a new season, with a new management team and a lot of new players so there are going to be teething troubles and it would be churlish to highlight them now. If they're still making us go hmmm in a few months then some thinking aloud may be done but until then (if there is to be a then) it's time to sit or stand back and watch what could be the beginning of something special.
Or it might not... I don't want to tempt fate this early into a new season!
I doubt there's a club anywhere that doesn't have one highly successful set of pre-season fixtures thats been followed by a league and cup campaign that wouldn't do the term 'woefully abject' justice. And lets face it, Mossley are a club that have had more than just the one.
I'm happy to say though that on this viewing I can see why people were enthused by the displays witnessed over the past month. It's wasn't perfect – and given it's the first match of the season I wasn't expecting it to be – but there was plenty on show to be optimistic about. Conversely however there were things, as C+C Music Factory once put it, to make you go hmmm.
My first thought about Mossley as the two teams lined up for the still pointless pre-match handshaking was how small a side they are. I honestly can't remember a home starting XI at Seel Park as diminutive as this one. More Lilliputians than Lilywhites. And it's impossible to argue that this difference in stature between the two teams didn't play a part in the opening (and only) goal as Michael White barely had to get his feet off the ground to out jump the few defenders in the six yard box and head his side into the lead. The ball hit back of the net in the tenth minute and even at that early stage of the game it was a goal that had been coming.
The match was only four minutes old when Peter Collinge was forced into making an extremely good save to deny Kevin Towey, but the keeper could only stand and watch as Paul Lloyd poked the ball inches wide of the post and his own team mate Aaron Chalmers scrape the top of the crossbar with a wayward header.
There was the merest glimmer of a way back into the game for the home side when Mike Fish capitalised on Luke Atherton's inability to deal with a long ball, forcing Ben Hinchcliffe into making his first save of the afternoon. Sadly however it was to be a rare sighting of the Brig goal.
To say Mossley were under the cosh would be overstating things a little but the Preston based side looked like scoring every time they ventured forward. A reshuffle after half an hour though finally saw Mossley's defence start to... well, look like a defence (mainly due to the fact that there was finally someone on the left side of midfield to give the full back some protection) and they began to enjoy a little more possession than they'd previously been afforded.
Unfortunately though this extra time on the ball was culminating in nothing more than a few crosses into the box which were practice catches for Brig keeper. He was eventually made to work for his corn five minutes from the interval when two Bridge defenders produced a master class in how not to clear your lines when under pressure and played the ball into the path of Steve Settle. His first time shot was probably a little closer to Hinchcliffe than he'd have like it to have been but the keeper still had to produce a fantastic stop to prevent it from levelling the score.
Whether it was thorough the visitors deciding to sit back or Mossley finally hitting their stride, after the break the Lilywhites dominated the lions share of the possession. That's no hyperbole either, they controlled the game and in doing so put together some very nice moves. The down side is that as attractive as their style of play was, it was mostly for nought as time and again it fell apart in the final third of the pitch. A combination of a packed defence and taking an extra touch or three when was none was needed ensured that Hinchcliffe wasn't forced into more heroics. He probably should have been called on to do something, even if it only to pick the ball out of the net, when Andy Watson was left with a free header on the edge of the six yard box but the centre half could only send the ball looping high over the cross bar.
Mossley's cause wasn't being helped by their seeming reluctance to use the width of the pitch as most of their attacking play was being directed down the middle and straight into a barricade of red shirts. The introduction of Osebi Abadaki added a much needed bit of flair and invention into the Lilywhites attacks and the ball finally began to work it's way towards the huge gaps down both flanks.
Unfortunately though the problems with differences in height came into play again as anything other than a low cutback from the byline was comfortably dealt with by the Brig defence. So despite spending almost the entirety of the last half hour of the match with the ball at their feet in the oppositions half of the pitch, all Mossley had to show for their efforts were two shots which drifted past the post from 83rd minute substitute Michael Oates.
If you wish to see some of those misses - near and not so near - then you can by clicking play on the video below. And yes, widescreen! Ooooo...
If football was based on all things being fair then both sides would have had a point each from this game and both would have probably been reasonably happy with it. Neither side deserved to win in the same way neither deserved to lose but lose we did and that's the game; sometimes you don't get what's merited. On the other hand though I'm sure – nay, certain - that over the coming months there'll be more than a few occasions where we'll get more than we should have done out of the game. It's why we love and hate the sport in equal measure.
Looking at Mossley with an optimistic frame of mind, there's plenty to be hopeful about. As a reasonably new side they're only going to get better (please don't let that sentence come back and haunt me) as the team begin to gel and the starting XI becomes more settled. The fact that the team were always looking for the opportunity to play along the floor instead of aimlessly lumping it in the general direction of the opposing goalkeeper bodes well too.
Viewing things from a not quite rose-tinted perspective can wait a while though. It's the first match of a new season, with a new management team and a lot of new players so there are going to be teething troubles and it would be churlish to highlight them now. If they're still making us go hmmm in a few months then some thinking aloud may be done but until then (if there is to be a then) it's time to sit or stand back and watch what could be the beginning of something special.
Or it might not... I don't want to tempt fate this early into a new season!
Gearing Up & Slowing Down
Ladies and gentlemen. Madames et monsieurs. Damen und herren... it's that time of the year again: the start of a new season.
Unless of course that is you support a club in something other than the Evo-Stik or Zamaretto league's because your season began at the very least a week ago. If so the optimism a fresh campaign brings may have already been replaced by the gnawing sensation in the pit of your stomach that your weekends are continually going to be ruined over the coming months by a squad of players whose sole ambition in football is to rise to a level where they're only described as inept.
But this isn't a posting that's going to be about hopes and dreams. It's about something else entirely.
The few remaining regular visitors to this dark corner of the world wide web won’t have failed to notice the lack of reports during the recent spell of friendlies and I'm sorry to say it's a situation that's not going to change much over the course of the coming season. There will still be the odd musings on what went on at matches, just not as many of them as there has been in the past.
I started the blog because writing about Mossley and the football world the club inhabited was fun. For a multitude of reasons though - none being any greater than the other - that is no longer the case. Some of them I'll explain, others I won't.
Detailing the on and, at times, off pitch events at Seel Park has become a chore and looking back over what I've written during the course of the past six to twelve months it shows: as my apathy has grown, the standard of my writing (not that I'm big-headed enough to believe it was great in the first place) has dropped. It could turn out that the decision to cut back on postings may get the creative juices flowing once more, making the staid run through of games which have cluttered the blog lately a thing of the past. Or it may not. Only the future knows for certain.
I appreciate that some of you may be thinking that's a sorry excuse for not doing match reports but there are other factors involved as well as I've previously mentioned. Such as it's hard to write about games when you're not there to see them and this season I won't be at as many of them as I've been in the past.
For years Mossley AFC (and I'm fully aware of how sad this confession may – nay, will – make me sound) has always seemed to come first in my life. Anything I did would be based around whether or not the team was playing and if there was a chance I could make it to the game. It’s time though other things started to take a priority, not least my health which I've neglected on far too many occasions over the last few years in the pursuit of seeing a game of football. A President's Cup fixture on a cold winter's night is no longer worth the three or four days of acute back pain it has previously caused.
And those are just a couple of the reasons why. As I said there earlier there are more but I have neither the time nor indeed the inclination to share them here.
Maybe taking a step back will allow me to rediscover my love of the game and, more importantly, watching Mossley. I want to recapture the excitement I once had when I stood on the terraces; I want to go back to enjoying matches again and maybe something as simple as being nothing more than a fan, rather than a real supporter, will allow me to do just that.
Like I said though the blog will continue to tick over with the odd report on home games, as well as the occasional video or two (it's not being mothballed completely) so there's still a reason for popping by occasionally. Maybe just not quite as often as you may have done in the past!
Anyhoo, I'll end by going off on a complete tangent and wishing the players and management of the Lilywhites a successful season. If and when a full and normal service resumes on here I hope it's to help document one of those all too rare successful periods in Mossley's history.
Unless of course that is you support a club in something other than the Evo-Stik or Zamaretto league's because your season began at the very least a week ago. If so the optimism a fresh campaign brings may have already been replaced by the gnawing sensation in the pit of your stomach that your weekends are continually going to be ruined over the coming months by a squad of players whose sole ambition in football is to rise to a level where they're only described as inept.
But this isn't a posting that's going to be about hopes and dreams. It's about something else entirely.
The few remaining regular visitors to this dark corner of the world wide web won’t have failed to notice the lack of reports during the recent spell of friendlies and I'm sorry to say it's a situation that's not going to change much over the course of the coming season. There will still be the odd musings on what went on at matches, just not as many of them as there has been in the past.
I started the blog because writing about Mossley and the football world the club inhabited was fun. For a multitude of reasons though - none being any greater than the other - that is no longer the case. Some of them I'll explain, others I won't.
Detailing the on and, at times, off pitch events at Seel Park has become a chore and looking back over what I've written during the course of the past six to twelve months it shows: as my apathy has grown, the standard of my writing (not that I'm big-headed enough to believe it was great in the first place) has dropped. It could turn out that the decision to cut back on postings may get the creative juices flowing once more, making the staid run through of games which have cluttered the blog lately a thing of the past. Or it may not. Only the future knows for certain.
I appreciate that some of you may be thinking that's a sorry excuse for not doing match reports but there are other factors involved as well as I've previously mentioned. Such as it's hard to write about games when you're not there to see them and this season I won't be at as many of them as I've been in the past.
For years Mossley AFC (and I'm fully aware of how sad this confession may – nay, will – make me sound) has always seemed to come first in my life. Anything I did would be based around whether or not the team was playing and if there was a chance I could make it to the game. It’s time though other things started to take a priority, not least my health which I've neglected on far too many occasions over the last few years in the pursuit of seeing a game of football. A President's Cup fixture on a cold winter's night is no longer worth the three or four days of acute back pain it has previously caused.
And those are just a couple of the reasons why. As I said there earlier there are more but I have neither the time nor indeed the inclination to share them here.
Maybe taking a step back will allow me to rediscover my love of the game and, more importantly, watching Mossley. I want to recapture the excitement I once had when I stood on the terraces; I want to go back to enjoying matches again and maybe something as simple as being nothing more than a fan, rather than a real supporter, will allow me to do just that.
Like I said though the blog will continue to tick over with the odd report on home games, as well as the occasional video or two (it's not being mothballed completely) so there's still a reason for popping by occasionally. Maybe just not quite as often as you may have done in the past!
Anyhoo, I'll end by going off on a complete tangent and wishing the players and management of the Lilywhites a successful season. If and when a full and normal service resumes on here I hope it's to help document one of those all too rare successful periods in Mossley's history.
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