Mossley are still seeking their first home victory of the season after failing to put this game out of sight by early in the second half and then succumbing to a late flurry of goals to give Skelmersdale a highly flattering 4-1 victory.

Shaun Higgins was able to name an unchanged line up for the first time this season on the back of successive wins over Glossop in the FA Cup and AFC Fylde in the League and Mossley opened brightly attacking the Park End.

Skem as always, were well organised and direct, always looking to win the game, as one would expect for a club that is regularly amongst the play-off slots. However, Mossley’s pass and move football caused much consternation in the visitors defence for much of the game.

Mossley had several chances to score in an end to end opening period. The majority of those chances fell to Mike Oates, who despite playing generally very well, missed three gilt edged chances to give the Lilywhites the lead, two in the first half and one a minute after half time. On each occasion Skem keeper Damien Eastham was able to make a save when Oates will know he ought to have done better.
Mossley were then sucker-punched in the 29th minute when Chris Almond crashed the visitors in front.

Skem’s joy was short lived however when Mike Fish superbly rounded Eastham to score his third goal of the season to pull Mossley deservedly level just three minutes later.

Both sides played bright and open attacking football but it was Mossley who carved the better chances and Ben Richardson was unlucky not score with a well struck free kick that grazed the foot of the post.

The game became a little scrappier after the break and was held up by injuries on three occasions in quick succession. This seemed to affect Mossley’s fluency and Peter Collinge was called on to make a fantastic save when tipping Almond’s fierce drive away.

The game looked to be heading for a draw as the clock hit 85 minutes but Skem had other ideas and it was a static Mossley defence that watched as a cross from the left wing was headed home by unmarked central defender Steven Akrigg to give the visitors the lead.

Worse was to come when following a Mossley free kick Skem broke quickly and the Mossley defence was caught out as substitute Ryan Wade fired home a well struck shot.

The salt was firmly rubbed into Mossley’s wounds when Paul Woolcott added Skem’s fourth two minutes from time to give the scoreline a remarkably lop-sided look that didn’t reflect one iota the first 85 minutes of what was a well contested encounter.

The result was incredibly harsh on a Mossley side that will know that this game was theirs to win. Unfortunately for the Lilywhites it was Skem that got the goal-scoring side of the game right and Mossley were left to rue their missed chances.

Report by Wizard

pics by Smiffy