With just under an hour to go though to kick-off and an afternoon of doing not a lot in front of me, I thought "I may as well." If the game wasn't up to much at least I'd have had have a pleasant stroll down Gorsey Lane to get to Hurst Cross. And over the course of the opening forty five minutes it looked as though that walk from the Junction Inn to the ground would turn out to be the highlight of the day.
That's not to say the first half was dull - it merely meandered a course between 14:58 and 15:44, occasionally jolting into a modicum of life.
Peter Collinge was called on to make a good save a couple of minutes after kick-off and his opposite number did well to stop what professional match reporters would call a "cheeky chip" from Jordan Goodeve sneaking under his crossbar (yes, you did just read correctly that Jordan Goodeve is turning out for Mossley once again). Along with the home side hitting the upright in strangely undramatic circumstances, that was about as good as it got.
Thankfully what followed after the break was marginally better. A situation helped in no small part by the home side taking the lead in rather impressive fashion just before the hour mark; a shot from distance that looked bound for the back of the net the moment the ball the left the Ashton trialists boot.
Mossley's response was late in coming - the 89th minute to be exact - but it proved to be just as good the goal that preceded it, if for a completely different reasons. While Ashton's goal was a born of a moment of individual brilliance, the equaliser was brilliant in it's simplicity. A quickly taken free-kick, an inch perfect cross from Leon Henry and Nathan Neequaye planting the ball beyond the reach of the keeper with a firm header.
And so it finished a draw. An unarguably fair result truth be told given that neither side really impressed over the other: the Robins had the better of the opening stages to each half, the Lilywhites the better of the closing stages to each period.
To be perfectly blunt, on the strength of this game, and I know it's unwise to make judgements based on pre-season matches, neither side looks like they're going to rip up any trees in their respective leagues this season.
But then as a Mossley fan I'm just happy with the fact that there'll be a season for us to aim to finish mid-table in.
Now I appreciate that having read my review of events some of you will be thinking that the game wasn't that bad. If you are then I congratulate you on having a higher threshold of boredom than me, or achieving a state of intoxication so great that it would render even the Horne and Corden Show entertaining.
But like I said way back at the beginning of this posting, my interest in the sport has waned a fair bit over the summer. I've no idea why that's happened but what I do know is that it's going to take more than what I saw in this game for me to rediscover the love of it again.
Oh well, only two* more to go before I find out if the start of the season can re-ignite my interest.
* Yes, I'm aware Mossley have four more friendlies left but given how much trouble it was for me to work up the enthusiasm to go to Hurst Cross, do you really think I'm going to go to Glossop and Kidsgrove?
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