Mossley enjoyed a comfortable victory over Garforth Town at Hurst Cross thanks in the main to a frantc first twelve minutes that saw the Lilywhites three goals to the good.

Mossley manager John Flanagan gave debuts to keeper Jon McIlwaine and midfielder Connor Hampson and both players acquitted themselves well on their first Mossley starts.

Mossley opened the scoring on three minutes when Mike Fish and Nathan Neequaye played a headed one two and the former stormed between two Garforth defenders to drive home.

Five minutes later Mossley were two up when Matty Kay’s precise through ball released Ben Richardson on the right and the young wing back stepped around keeper Ellison to slot home.

Then on 12 minutes Lee Blackshaw’s cross was turned home by Fish to put Mossley three goals to the good.
Garforth kept the game alive by twice reducing the arrears in the space of three minutes between the 35th and 38th minutes with Adam Clayton and Tom Greaves scoring with very similar goals as the game swung at a high tempo from end to end.

In the 41st minute the effervescent Fish completed his hat-trick when Richardson put him through to blast home from 10 yards.

The first half goal fest wasn’t repeated after the break as both sides took their feet off the pedal but Mossley did manage a fifth goal in the 70th minute. Andy Watson played a long ball through for Neequaye to chase and the Mossley number 10 drew the keeper before unselfishly squaring the ball for Matty Kay to tap home his 28th goal of the season.

Keeper Peter Collinge made a late cameo appearance as an outfield player when he replaced Matty Kay two minutes from time to keep his record of having appeared in every game this season.

Report by John Cawthorne

pics by Smiffy