'Tis the season of giving and Mossley certainly entered into the festive spirit by gifting Lancaster City three first half goals and, ultimately, all the points on offer as well.
There was a Marley-esque forewarning of what was to come in the opening quarter of an hour when Ryan Zico-Black and Guy Heffeman wasted two good opportunities to put the visitors ahead, but Mossley's 'Nightmare after Christmas' was to begin in the 18th minute.
Gareth Hamlet's second stab at attempting to intercept a through ball ended with him sending Mark Jackson crashing to floor, leaving the referee with no other option than to award the visitors a penalty.
Being a time of goodwill to all men, the referee chose to show the Mossley defender a yellow card rather than the red I suspect everyone in Seel Park was expecting - much to the very visible displeasure of the occupants of the Lancaster dug-out. The hold-up in play whilst the referee restored order had no undue effect on Zico-Black and the diminutive winger hammered the ball past Ashley Connor from 12 yards.
That anger shown by the visitor's bench cooled rapidly moments later when the referee's leniency stopped themselves from being reduced to 10 men after Heffeman's horrendous challenge from behind on Paul Quinn was deemed only worthy of a yellow card. And seven minutes later their mood turned to one of jubilation when a free-kick was played deep to the far post, and with Mossley remaining incredibly static, the ball was cut back to Jackson who slotted his shot past Ashley Connor from close range.
Immediately following the restart Heffeman almost added to the lead when he cannoned another cheaply conceded free-kick off Mossley's crossbar, but the bow was to be tied around Lancaster's neatly wrapped (and deserved) three points with little over a third of the game gone.
For a reason that I doubt even Lee Connor will be able to fully explain, the Mossley captain handled the ball after it had been lobbed, somewhat hopefully, into the box. It was a rush of blood to the head that gave the Dolly Blues their second spot kick of the game and just like the first, Zico-Black calmly dispatched it into the back of the net.
Any hope that the third goal would be like the third ghost that visited Scrooge and bring about a change were quashed six minutes into the second period. A cross from the right found numerous City players alone in the box and whether intentional or not, Dave Foster's flicked header looped over Ashley Connor and into the goal.
Connor then prevented Lancaster from notching their fifth with a full length save to keep out a thunderbolt from Heffeman following the best move of the match, before Mossley finally posed their first real threat on their opponents goal. Hamlet had a shot turned behind by City keeper Mark Thornley, who then did well to stop substitute Michael Fish from scoring what would have been nothing more than a consolation goal.
Alas, like Christmas itself, Mossley's brief resurgence was seemingly over within the blink of an eye and the final twenty or so minutes of the game passed without incident before, in the dying embers of the match, Connor produced another top class save to deny Neil Marshall and give the scoreline slightly more respectability than it would otherwise have had.
Whatever the reasons for Mossley's considerable “off day”, let's hope that the remaining two games of the busy Christmas schedule sees the Lilywhites become slightly more (pre-revelation) Scrooge-like in their attitude towards their opponents.
report by SJNR
pics by Smiffy
