This was a game Mossley will want to forget quickly as the team fell to a 4-0 home reverse at the hands of Kendal Town at Seel Park on Saturday, finishing a miserable afternoon with ten men after top scorer Mitchell Bryant was harshly red carded.
The game started in promising fashion with Bryant causing havoc before his cross was turned goalwards by Tom Pratt. The keeper blocked before Mossley were awarded an indirect free kick for a defensive back pass only eight yards from the Kendal goal. Dean Warburton was the player to shoot only to see his effort clearly blocked on the line by a defender's hand without reward from a finicky referee.
Kendal then scored with their first serious attack. A long ball forward found Carney unmarked and clearly off-side, missed by the assistant Carney crossed and Kieran Pickup hit a super volley from the edge of the box to give the visitors the lead.
The flow of the game was constantly broken up by the referee's whistle for the most trivial of offences not least when when Bryant found his way into the ref's notebook for protesting that he had been elbowed.
Chances were few but Mossley seemed reasonably in control of proceedings as Kendal's long ball game was seemingly ineffective, Mossley coming closest to an equaliser when MacDonald tipped over a fierce Tom Pratt effort from 25 yards.
Half time 0-1, nothing much to worry about, Mossley more than capable of recovery. However, it didn't quite turn out like that. The Lilywhites were enjoying the lions share of possession but were finding the Kendal defence a tough nut to crack and it got a whole lot tougher on 60 minutes when an innocuous challenge on the left wing by Bryant saw the Mossley man shown a second yellow card followed by red. Harsh indeed!
Not to be disheartened, Mossley then enjoyed their best spell of the game, but it proved to be a storm in a teacup as on 68 minutes a long ball from left to right saw Craig Carney loop a header beyond Mossley keeper Andy Farrimond's reach to double the visitors lead and give ten man Mossley a big hill to climb. That hill became a mountain five minutes later when Carney's deflected volley found the back of the Mossley net.
To rub salt in Mossley's wounds Kendal scored a fourth two minutes from time after Josh Granite brought down Pickup and Mark Jackson fired home from the spot to give the visitors a more than flattering scoreline.
Wiz
Smiffy's pics

A Kendal defender clearly handles on the line to prevent Mossley taking a first minute lead.