In possibly one of the most bizarre games ever encountered at Seel Park Mossley finished with just eight men on the pitch and a 6-2 defeat that didn't reflect the game as a whole at all.

It was to Mossley's credit that, despite being dealt the harshest of blows, at no point did they capitulate against the full professional north easterners and up until the first dismissal in the 25th minute looked decidedly the better team.

The game saw a nervous start by both teams but it was Mossley who created the first chance when Russell saved Aaron Chalmers effort after the visitors failed to clear Steve Settle's right wing corner.

Mossley were more than matching their lofty opponents until the 25th minute when Andy Watson, who had a torrid afternoon, stumbled on the ball whilst trying to dribble clear and Senior went through to fall dramatically over Peter Collinge's outstretched leg. The referee awarded the visitors a penalty and somewhat harshly red carded Collinge, despite there being a covering defender.

Mossley, without a keeper on the bench gave the sky blue number 1 shirt to Ben Richardson and the young wing back was then well beaten by Tommy Wright's spot kick.

Darlington's Chris Moore was lucky to only get a yellow card for an industrial lunge at Danny Warner just after Mossley had replaced Mike Fish with full back Ryan Barrow, leaving the outstanding Mike Oates as the lone forager up front.

Six minutes later the Lilywhites were two down as Mark Bridge-Wilkinson fired home from the edge of the box with Richardson clawing thin air.

Sprightly Mossley were far from out of it though as on 39 minutes they reduced the arrears. Lee Blackshaw playing a superb reverse pass to Mike Oates who confidently stroked home his 9th goal of the season.

Darlington stretched the lead to 3-1 early in the second half with Chris Senior firing home after Mossley had only partially cleared but again Mossley wouldn't give in.

Steve Settle scored a second for the home side on 54 minutes racing onto Hone's mistake to roll the ball between keeper Russell's legs to give Mossley renewed hope despite their numerical disadvantage.

Mossley again failed to clear their lines from a Darlington corner in the 61st minute and the otherwise ponderous Kevin Austin thrashed home a rebound to give the visitors a somewhat flattering 4-2 lead.

Four minutes later Mossley's faint hopes of a revival were banished when Chris Rowney mis-timed a tackle on Michael Brough and after a number of Darlington players had accosted Rowney for his misdemeanour and Steve Settle had been pole-axed in the resulting brawl referee Wigglesworth of Doncaster chose to dismiss Rowney for the foul (no worse than the one Moore was yellow carded for in the first half) and Settle who had attempted peace-making, such is his nature, received a second yellow and both left the field leaving Mossley with just eight players and the referee with a performance that he may not want to dwell on for too long.

It was a bizarre sight to see the overworked eight men of Mossley battle manfully on against the eleven of Darlington and the brave Lilywhites were even able to win a couple of corners. Darlington, for their part looked anything but a Blue Square Premier side and struggled their way to two further and totally flattering goals by Gary Smith, who's weak shot bobbled over Richardson in the 80th minute, and Senior who scored his second with five minutes remaining.

In an 11 v 11 game, Mossley would truly have fancied their chances against a full professional team who were at best poor and at worst defensively very frail indeed.

Report by Wizard

pics by Smiffy