Mossley staged an amazing late, late comeback to take maximum points at an extremely windy and increasingly wet Seel Park in Easter Saturday’s home clash with Harrogate Railway Athletic.

Rail boast a much stronger side than their current League position suggests and proved dangerous opponents.

The visitors had first advantage of the powerful westerly wind brought ahead of the so-named “Storm Katie” and the visitors created the first chance when Liam Flynn made a smart save to deny Chris Ovington’s effort.

Mossley then began to find their fluency and created a host of chances with young Rail keeper Chandler Hallwood excelling on several occasions. That along with some desperate defensive blocking looked set to deny the Lilywhites who were finding plenty of joy in the attacking third but couldn’t find a finish.

That failure to score proved the Lilywhites undoing in the 19th minute when Darlington loanee Amar Purewal crossed low for Ovington to slot home from ten yards.

After Hallwood had made a superb saves to deny Andy Keogh’s header and Mike Fish’s shot, the equaliser finally arrived on 32 minutes. John Bennett threaded a through ball which Tom Pratt took in his stride, holding off the last defender, before slotting past the stranded keeper.

More Hallwood heroics denied the Lilywhites through to the break but the second half was only two minutes old when Mossley took the lead.

Good movement around the visitors box saw Mike Fish slip a pass through to Tom Pratt who finished well into the far corner.

Rail’s retort came unexpectedly on 54 minutes when Ovington again found himself a yard inside Mossley’s box and fired them level.

The game swung end to end briefly before Rail took the lead for the second time on 69 minutes.

Nathan Curtis’ cross from the right found substitute Paul Beesley unmarked at the far post and the ex Harrogate Town striker made no mistake.

Mossley struggled to find a foothold back as the weather deteriated and the tempo slowed as the pitch steadily became sodden.

Harrogate looked likely winners as stoppage time approached. However, there was to be a late and very dramatic twist to proceedings as Mossley threw men forward with more abandon as the game entered it’s final throes.

Substitute Dougie Carroll beat two defenders on the left and cut inside before curling a beautiful chip shot over and beyond Hallwood’s despairing grasp for a last minute equaliser.

The board showed 5 minutes stoppage time and it was to be Mossley who took full advantage of those added minutes.

There were 93 minutes on the clock when Pratt’s powerful shot wasn’t held cleanly by Hallwood and Carroll was in like a flash to nick the ball home for his second to turn the game around within a blink of the eye.

Incredibly, Mossley hadn’t finished there as Tom Pratt raced through a gap a minute later to calmly slot home his first hat-trick for the club with literally the last kick of a quite remarkable game.

Wiz

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