Mossley survived a physical onslaught from Tynesiders Dunston UTS in this FA Cup 2nd Qualifying Round tie. Two Mike Oates goals proving enough to see the Lilywhites through to the next round and boosting the coffers by another £4,000 in E.ON sponsorship monies.

Pre match reports suggested that Dunston were an extremely physical side who would attempt to bully Mossley into submission. This proved to be the case but Mossley proved that good football can beat aggression with this important victory.

The first half saw Mossley dominate possession for long periods while Dunston's wind driven long ball game proving thoroughly ineffective, as did their attempts to intimidate the Mossley players with late niggling tackles and flying elbows in just about every challenge.

Dunston keeper Andy Clark will hope to soon forget Mossley's opening goal when it came on 14 minutes. Lee Blackshaw's run and under-hit shot saw the big home custodian spill an easy save to the feet of Michael Oates who was able to tap the ball into an empty net.

Mossley played some flowing football despite the home side's constant harassment and some particularly weak refereeing that was giving the Lilywhites youngsters little or no protection.

The next major incident came around the 40th minute. Chris Rowney won a tackle with Dunston number 8 Michael Dixon in midfield. Dixon responded by aggressively picking Rowney up by the neck and throwing him to the floor. Referee Mr McCallum saw this as nothing more than a yellow card offence. A decision both he and Mossley would regret within a minute.

Mossley's next attacking move saw Dixon lunge in a horrible two footed challenge from behind on Daryl Weston. The referee then, instead of waving the obvious straight red card at Dixon, unbelievably showed him another yellow followed by red despite this being the Dunston midfielder's second blatant red card offence within a minute. Weston spent several minutes receiving treatment but was inevitably forced to leave the game early after manfully struggling on into the second half.

Mossley ought to have sealed victory early in the second half when Dunston keeper Clark upended Sam Hare and Mossley were awarded a penalty. Unfortunately for Mossley Mike Fish's spot kick was saved by Clarke diving to his right to claw the ball away.

However, Mossley soon had their second goal. Ben Richardson caught Dunston out on the right and Mike Fish squared the ball to Mike Oates who stroked home his second goal of the game with Clark floundering.

Clark then made a couple of good saves to deny Fish and Blackshaw as Mossley looked to put the game beyond the home side's reach.

Dunston, now chasing a seemingly forlorn cause then threw caution to the strong north eastern wind. Peter Collinge was twice called into making fine saves to deny Lee McAndrew and Andrew Bulford, but Mossley didn't heed the warning and a superb 25 yard volley on the turn by Bulford halved the home deficit and gave the home side the impetus to surge for an unlikely equaliser, this despite their numerical disadvantage.

The remainder of the game saw Dunston throw everything they had at Mossley, mainly consisting of humping the ball into the Mossley box at every opportunity and shooting on sight. The Mossley defence held firm with keeper Collinge and central defensive pair Watson and Chalmers in outstanding form, while Mossley were still a threat on the break without finding the goal to finish the home side off.

It was however, Mossley who had the last chance. Substitute Danny Egan broke clear to set Oates up for a possible hat-trick, however, Oates hesitated and pulled his shot an inch wide of the post as the referee sounded his whistle for the last time and Mossley breathed a collective sigh of relief knowing that they were through to the next round.

Report by Wizard