For the second year in succession Salford arrived at Seel Park still searching for their first win of the season and unfortunately for the home side, for the second successive year the outcome was exactly the same.

Not only was it The Ammies first victory of the season, it was their first points of the campaign too and all the visitors needed to claim them was a solitary goal.

Its arrival eighteen minutes into the match was the result of a rare moment of quality on what was otherwise a poor afternoon for good football.  A slide rule pass sent Adam Morning scampering away down the left wing and after beating Andy Watson not once but twice, the former Mossley winger fired over a cross which was met at full stretch by the head of another ex-Lilywhite, Rhodri Giggs, who directed the ball beyond the reach of Peter Collinge.

A few minutes later a shot by Danny Egan forced Andy Robertson into palming the ball over his crossbar, but other than a couple of half chances that flashed across the face of goal, that was best opportunity Mossley could muster in response to going behind during the opening period.

In fact the Lilywhites were fortunate they weren't facing an even bigger deficit to overcome at the start of the second half after Carl Ruffer grazed the post with an unmarked header from close range just before the interval.

From a Mossley perspective what followed after the break was marginally better than what had preceded it but it still fell some distance short of being enough to rescue the game. 

Eight minutes into it Egan once again tested Robertson, this time with a shot from distance that the keeper fumbled, rather than pushed, away for a corner.  Over the remainder of the match though Mossley were only able to carve out one more real opening and it came with quarter of an hour left. 

Substitute Rob Crank played the ball into the path wing back Ben Richardson and his cross fizzed along the edge of the six yard box to Egan.  The forward though, probably not realising just how much time and space he had, swung wildly at the ball and spooned his shot high over the cross bar.

The visitors had the chance to seal the points during a goalmouth scramble in which three shots were blocked in quick succession but a second goal proved unnecessary as Mossley continued to flail, much as they've done all season, in the attacking third of the pitch.

The final whistle was the cue for scenes of celebration from the visiting contingent while those with Mossley's fortunes at heart were left to ponder on another poor week for their side; one in which two defeats in five days to teams who hadn't previously won a game has seen the foot of the table draw nearer, and what was hoped to be an early season blip begin to resemble a crisis.

Report by SJNR