Despite the worst weather forecast of the winter, Mossley were forced to make the arduous journey to the north east for this game on Durham City's dreadful artificial playing surface.

Mossley were without the suspended Ben Fallows, the injured Danny Hudson and the unwell Nathan Neequaye for the trip and Mossley boss Steve Halford gave a debut to new signing Dave Young, while reserve team graduate Josh Burke was added to the bench. Kayde Coppin was selected to partner Tom Denton up front while Ben Richardson and Cavell Coo swapped positions.

Mossley arrived to a pitch whitened by the day's first snowfall and a strong breeze that made life difficult for the team playing with the wind at their backs.

Games played on 3G pitches need a different set of rules as the ball refuses to sit at set plays and free kicks are inevitably played with a moving ball. This non existent rule gave the home side the first advantage when a 10th minute free kick was fired into the Mossley box for Andrew Stephenson to force home from close range and despite Mossley protests over the moving ball the referee allowed the goal to stand.

Worse was to follow for the Lilywhites nine minutes later when Cavell Coo was dispossessed by a blatant foul which allowed David Dowson to fire into the top corner to double the Durham advantage.

Mossley's attacking play in the opening period was hampered by the ball blowing out of play whenever it was passed forward and Durham were to be equally affected by the same problem in the second half.

Durham scored a third goal through Gary Brown on 23 minutes when he was set up by a mis-hit corner and Dowson added his second and Durham's fourth seven minutes before the break to give Mossley a mountain to climb.

Tom Denton came closest to reducing the arrears when he charged down the aptly named home keeper WInter's clearance, but again the ball blew out of play before the big Mossley striker could reach it.

The second half was a completely different story as Mossley dominated the entire half with Durham encountering the same problems that had beset Mossley in the first period.

Denton was unlucky not to get on the end of Coo's low cross early in the half and that set the tone for the remainder of the game.

Mossley finally and deservedly got on the scoresheet in the 61st minute when Coppin played the ball across the edge of the box to Mark Haslam who confidently rifled home his first Mossley goal.

Haslam was unlucky not to double his tally minutes later when Winter got down well to save his fierce shot. Dan Queeley and Denton both also went close in the same spell as Mossley continually pressed forward.

It was inevitably too little too late but Mark Haslam finally added his second in the final minute to give the scoreline a more respectable look and give Mossley boss Halford some encouragement for the tough games to come over the next month.

If the result was bad enough the journey home was worse as it was nearing midnight when the coach finally arrived back at Seel Park after an extremely arduous snowbound journey home that had taken almost five hours longer than it normally would. Truly a day out to forget!

Report by Wizard