Garforth Town edged to victory in a war of attrition in the Seel Park mud on what was a cold and wet Tuesday night.

It was an enthralling contest. Garforth, pushing for a play off spot with a more than useful team, facing a Mossley side boosted by the addition of debutant centre forward Tom Denton with Nathan Neequaye relegated to the bench on this occasion.

Gareth McClelland made a couple of other changes from the side that appeared in the previous outing with Mike Jones replacing Tom Ingham at wing back and Kayde Coppin coming in for the unavailable Dan Queeley.

Mossley enjoyed the early pressure without creating a clear chance though Ben Richardson was unlucky when he charged down the keeper’s attempted clearance but the ball flew wide and Joe Heap swung in a couple of dangerous corners that saw the away goal briefly under siege.

When Garforth did threaten it took a Martin Pearson wonder save to keep the scores level as he somehow got a full hand to turn the ball over the bar from Walker’s powerful point blank half volley.

Pearson was on hand to turn away a powerful Tom Greaves cross shot a few minutes later as Garforth showed their play-off prowess.

It was however Mossley who took the lead on 29 minutes. Mossley won a corner on the right and when the ball was laid back to Kayde Coppin outside the box, the Mossley winger rifled a great shot beyond Lonergan’s reach from 25 yards.

Mossley were unfortunate not to double their lead as Denton had a shot saved and then saw his header from a corner loop onto the crossbar.

That miss proved to be Mossley’s eventual undoing as Garforth made a blistering start to the second half and were level within three minutes. Tom Greaves scoring from a rebound after Pearson had blocked Walker’s initial powerful effort.

Garforth enjoyed a good spell of pressure as Mossley struggled to regain the fluency of their first half performance and the visitors went in front on 58 minutes.

It was a goal that had a strong element of luck about it - Paul Walker wasn’t closed down as he approached the left corner of the box and he rifled in a low cross that evaded everyone and the player celebrated in a somewhat embarrassed fashion as the ball evaded a sea of legs in the Mossley box and found it’s way into the far corner of the net.

Mossley finally regained their composure but it was a very different Garforth game plan that they now faced as the visitors were happy to hammer the ball into the Mossley half with every touch as the Lilywhites, on an increasingly sticky surface tried to find a way through a solid and occasionally ruthless Garforth defence.
Osebi Abadaki appeared to be Mossley’s best hope at this stage as some typical surging runs were only halted by either fouls or shots that were just off target and Garforth hung on to collect the points when a draw would probably have been the fairest result.

Report by Wizard

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