Despite a heroic late effort nine man Mossley were unable to salvage a point at Garforth and went down to their fifth successive defeat after gifting the hosts an opening goal and then having two players sent off.

Mossley opened brightly and fashioned two chances in the first 2 minutes.From the kick off Mossley won a free kick on the left ,with Chris Rowneys deep cross being headed into the side netting by Aaron Chalmers. Within a minute Garforth's centre half and keeper failed to deal with a routine through ball but Kristian Dennis couldn't get enough power in his shot and Garforth were able to clear.

Garforth then started to get into the game with Paul Walkers shot being held comfortably by Collinge.

Mossley then gifted Garforth the lead on 11 minutes when Michael Thomas' cross field pass was intercepted by Paul Walker who had a clear run on goal, and despite Pete Collinge forcing him wide he managed to retain possession and roll the ball across the box to an unmarked David Brown who had no trouble in firing into the empty net .

Garforth took heart from their goal and started to put pressure on the Mossley defence, their forwards being adept at playing quick one touch football, with Hotchkiss curling one attempt just wide after a neat buld up then Small slicing wide from a good position.

The first flashpoint arrived on 33 minutes when Sam Hare was shown a straight red card. After Garforth were awarded a free kick Hare appeared to throw the ball back at a Garforth player, whether there was any malice was debatable but the ball hit the player in the head , he collapsed as if hit by Mike Tyson and the referee produced a red card.

It was not a good first half for Mossley who hadn't pressured the Garforth defence at all after the first few minutes and had allowed Garforth to get on top, with their forward players showing neat control and 1st time passing

A goal down and a man down Mossley coulnd't have made a worse start to the 2nd half when after 4 minutes they conceded possession on half way,Garforth were quick to attack down their right, Ben Small playing in full back Milton Turner through on goal, his cross shot hit Collinges right hand post but rebounded perfectly for Walker to knock in the rebound to double Garforths lead.

From what looked like an increasingly difficult position, a double substitution on 57 minutes seemed to breathe new life into Mossley with Fish and Weston replacing Oates and Hall, Within 2 minutes Fish did well to hold up.the ball on the left side of the area and laid the ball inside to Matty Kay who struck a powerful drive into the top corner of the net giving the keeper no chance.

Garforth responded by taking the initiative again and Collinge had to be alert to race to the edge of his area to grab the ball away from Brown, before excelling himself with a superb save after Walker had gone clean through on goal. As he tried to round the keeper Collinge produced a perfect challenge to take the ball off his toe.

Mossleys task then became almost impossible on 74 minutes after Matty Kay received 2 yellow cards in the space of 2 minutes, both of which looked on the harsh side.

Almost incredibly the nine men then grabbed the initiative and for the last 10 minutes had Garforth under increasing pressure, with every player working his socks off to retrieve the ball and pepper the penalty area and Garforth reduced to clearing the ball anywhere.

On 88 minutes Rowneys cross from the right was inch perfect for Fish only for centre half Kelly to produce a superb clearing header and in stoppage time Weston somehow evaded 3 challenges on the edge of the box to tee up Dennis, but his shot was saved at full length by Higginson in the Garforth goal.

A case of what might have been. Had Mossley played the whole 90 minutes like the last 15 and not gifted 2 goals away the result could have been so different.

Report by Paul Settle