Whilst Saturday’s win over Bamber Bridge might have been a little short of incident, that certainly wasn’t the case at Cammell Laird on Tuesday night where the crowd saw three goals, the same number of red cards and a brace of penalties – definite value for money for the entrance fee.

A fifth minute goal suggests that Mossley started brilliantly, but the bare stats don’t tell the full story as Laird should have been one up already.  The defence failed to deal with a set piece, allowing the ball to drop to Grogan whose shot hit the post.  A scramble ensued and ball fell to McNally who somehow hit the other post.

Then in their first attack Mossley’s Nathan Taylor delivered a deep cross that was cleared to Chris Rowney 25 yards out.  He controlled and delivered a low shot that fizzed past Molloy in the Laird goal to claim the lead.

Hero turned villain five minutes later when, with his team passing it around the back to settle down, Rowney turned into trouble, mis-controlled and tackled on the stretch, sending Henders sprawling.  It looked a bad tackle, not malicious but onto the shin, and it was 50/50 whether he would see red or yellow.  The referee chose the former, and Rowney was off.

Suddenly Mossley’s mind-set had to change again but they dealt comfortably with what Lairds could throw at them in open play, and then doubled their lead on 26 minutes.  A free kick from half way was launched into the box and Molloy came out to his penalty spot to punch away.  The ball fell to Coo, if anything further out than Rowney had been, but he simply took a touch to control and drilled the ball past the backtracking keeper to make it 2-0.

The cliché says you’re at your most vulnerable after you have scored and Crouch should have scored almost immediately for the home side when meeting a low cross, but Pearson made himself big and the ball hit him in the face.  However, Lairds did get on the scoresheet on 41 minutes when Lillywhite’s player-boss Halford climbed on the back of the big striker Bowen to meet a ball in the box and was penalised.  Henders netted from the spot.

Half time plans went out of the window within three minutes of the restart when Coo played a tremendous crossfield ball to Madeley, who headed the ball perfectly into his own path behind the last man.  Riley’s tackle on the forward looked a well-timed one, and the referee let it go, but the linesman insisted it was a penalty.  As such, there was no choice but to dismiss Riley, evening the sides up.  Coppin took the penalty, as he had last Saturday, but this time he missed to the left, much to Laird’s relief.

On 64 minutes Mossley had another chance as Molloy missed Young’s looping free kick, but Gorton could not keep his header down below the crossbar. 

With the sides now even, a midfield battle had ensued, but on 74 minutes there was another twist as McNally was dismissed. The foul was innocuous, and it was suggested that had he remembered McNally had been booked in the first half the referee wouldn’t have booked him again.  It certainly seemed he’d forgotten, as the red card came 30 seconds after the 2nd yellow.

This gave Mossley the numerical advantage, but raised the home side and Halford’s ten men had to deal with more pressure in the remaining minutes, not least when a corner was met by Bowen and seemed destined for the goal, only for substitute Lewis Proudfoot to hook the ball off the line.  It was to be the last worry of the game, as stout defending secured the points and maintained a 100% record.

Report by Jonathan Haggart