Mossley, somewhat surprisingly crashed out of the Manchester Premier Cup at a freezing Surrey Street on Wednesday night. The ring rusty Lilywhites paid the price for two errors in the first half and a host of missed chances in the second half.

Glossop were, as expected, hard working and industrious, closing down quickly and not easily allowing Mossley into their stride, but the opening goal came right out of the blue in the 18th minute. Darren Hamilton hit a long ball from deep which Mossley keeper Peter Collinge would have expected to catch easily, however, the ball slipped from his grasp and a linesman's flag had deemed that the ball had crossed the line before Collinge could recover his fumble.

Mossley pressed forward with Glossop restricted to a long ball game, but it was a breakaway goal that doubled the Hillmen's advantage just before the interval. Rick Bailey capitalised on an error by Nick Allen and slipped through a gap between the flat footed Nick Boothby and Graham Kay on the half way line to dash half the length of the pitch to round Collinge and slot home, much to the delight of the Glossop faithful.

The second half belonged almost totally to Mossley as the Lilywhites dominated possession but struggled to break down a dogged Glossop rearguard. When The Lilywhites did finally score it was a goal of the highest quality and a possible goal of the season contender. Matty Kay brilliantly pulled a pass out of the air with his first touch and rocketed the ball into the net on the volley with his second to give Mossley hope of recovery in the 71st minute.

Mossley forced a long series of corners and went close on numerous occasions but were unable to break down Glossop's resiliant defence in what had been a one sided second half.

Report by John Cawthorne