Mossley gave a disappointing and well below par performance against the previously winless bottom markers Ossett Albion at Queens Terrace on Wednesday night.

The game started disastrously for Mossley and barely improved in the following 89 minutes. Having won the toss Mossley strangely elected to play into the teeth of a gale-force wind and promptly fell behind in the very first minute. Ossett whipped in a cross from deep on the left, keeper Russ Saunders fumbled and Dale Kelly swooped to stab the ball home from close range.

Despite having the lions share of possession, Mossley struggled through much of the half to make any headway into Ossett territory as any attempts to feed Wayne Welbeck and Dougie Carroll with the type of service they needed were thwarted by the sheer strength of the wind and Ossett’s tendency to move the ball as quickly as possible in whichever direction they happened to be facing, Basic in the extreme but on this occasion somehow effective in thwarting the Lilywhites, who struggled against the conditions to play their usually effective but, on this night largely ineffective, attacking game.

The contrasting styles of the two teams created something of stalemate for the remainder of the game.
The second half saw Mossley create several clear chances. John Bennett and then Wayne Welbeck had great chances to equalise within moments of the restart. Welbeck will no doubt be kicking himself for missing. Having raced clear of the Ossett defence and weaved around the keeper, he then dragged a simple tap in from an albeit tight’ish angle into the side netting.

Thereafter, Mossley huffed and puffed but couldn’t blow the Ossett defence down despite having a steadily decreasing wind at their backs. Louis Horne fired narrowly over, Carroll brought a good save out of home keeper Adam Rhodes and Charlie Anderson saw a powerful header wiz past the post but that was about as close as Mossley got.

For their part Ossett stuck to their tasks, worked exceedingly hard to close down space and played the way they were facing.

For Mossley’s part, the team need to realise that there are no easy games in this league and not to believe that you will score a goal at some point rather than then actually going and making that happen are lessons that needs to be learned quickly if the excellent progress made in recent weeks isn’t to be wasted.

Report by Wizard