In their first competitive game of the season, The Lilywhites justified a sense of pre-game optimism around Seel Park, recording a win against a side that finished five places and fifteen points ahead of them in 2011-12. Not only that, Bamber Bridge did the double over them in the last campaign, so it will matter not one jot to Steve Halford’s side that it took a controversial late penalty to separate the teams.

There were five minutes to go when Sam Madeley took a tumble in the box as a free kick looked to be over-hit and sailing out of play. Few appealed for a spot kick but the referee awarded it and Kayde Coppin coolly slotted to Lee Dovey’s right, netting despite the keeper guessing his direction correctly. It had taken some time from foul to spot kick as Bamber Bridge had protested vociferously.

The game itself had been engrossing up until that point without being thrilling. Clear goal opportunities had been at a premium, with the majority of chances that had been created up until that point taking the crowd by surprise rather than coming from great build up play.

One such chance was Gary Gee’s 25th minute piledriver. A pair of blocked shots saw the ball bounce to the Gee 25 yards out, and he could not have hit it sweeter. The ball seemed destined for the goal only to hit the bar and, showing just how hard he’d hit it, bouncing down into the ground and out of the goal area. It was a tremendous effort, and the best of the first half.

Around that moment Mossley keeper Martin Pearson had made a good save to keep out a Darren Green swivelled snapshot whilst Chris Rowney had mis-kicked an attempt on goal when good work from Nathan Taylor led to a cut-back for the midfielder as he advanced into the box.

Before half time Bridge’s Bell wasted a half chance at the near post, bursting towards the 6 yard box but turning the ball wide, and Kayde Coppin woke the crowd up with an interception outside his own box then driving to the other end of the pitch before his dangerous cross was turned behind.

Bamber Bridge had caused problems to the home defence within 40 seconds of the kick off in the first half, and Mossley emulated this in the second when Coppin’s cross across the face of goal was just cleared by the stretching defence. Shortly afterwards, debutant Sam Hind had his best chance when a ball was pinged towards him in space, but he couldn’t control the ball cleanly and found the defence quick to react and clear.

Mossley were grateful to Pearson on 63 minutes when he saved acrobatically from Green’s sidefooted snapshot from the edge of the area. He needed to – the ball was heading for the top corner.

A forced change tipped the balance in Mossley’s favour. Cavell Coo had had a decent game until injury forced him off on the hour mark, but his replacement Ben Richardson had an excellent half hour when coming on and gave the home side real thrust as he took advantage of legs sapping in the heat.

He strode forward on several occasions. He played a 1-2 with Salmon on the edge of the area and drove a cross into the box that Salmon just couldn’t reach. On 78 minutes he intercepted in his own half and played the ball through, only for the keeper to slide out of his box to reach the ball and clear, crucially the ball well behind Richardson, so by the time he controlled and turned to lob the keeper, Dovey had had enough time to recover and could pluck the ball out of the air.

With 5 minutes to go another debutant, Jason Gorton, rose highest from a corner and met the ball with his head firmly. The crowd expected the net to ripple, and it did, unfortunately only as the ball just cleared the bar and hit the top of the goal.

A draw looked likely then, only for that disputed penalty call to settle the game in the home side’s favour. As the Lilywhite’s players celebrated a win after the whistle, the Bridge players continued to argue their point with the referee. It was too late by then, and Mossley would take their good spirits to Cammell Laird on Tuesday night.

Report by Jonathan Haggart

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