Mossley were held to a dour goalless draw by a one dimensional Ossett Albion side at Seel Park on Tuesday night.

It was something of a war of attrition for the Lilywhites as Ossett attempted to play no football whatsoever and instead simply hoofed the ball forward from every angle in the hope of turning Mossley defenders or that a bounce or a rebound might find prolific marksman Rob Bordman.

That it didn’t is testimony to Mossley’s great defending with Mike Thomas and Tom Dean outstanding in centre and Caldon Henson and Danny McDonnell mopping up on the flanks. Keeper Liam Flynn was mostly employed fielding those over hit punts but the big Mossley stopper performed that job impeccably.

The game swung from end to end as Mossley were somewhat sucked into the Unicorn’s direct approach.

Dave Short saw his angled effort fly across the face of the Ossett goal with Tom Pratt a fraction away from turning the ball home while Tom Dean had a powerful header well saved by Souter.

At the other end, a brief spell of Ossett pressure saw Danny McDonnell clear the ball off the line.

The second half followed a similar pattern to the first. Ossett failed to provide any real threat at all while Mossley came closest when substitute Dougie Carroll looked a certain scorer only to see his effort come back off the inside of the left hand post with keeper Souter well beaten.

It had been a bad tempered game, certainly from an Ossett viewpoint, as the visitors picked up a string of yellow cards and spent much of the evening moaning at overworked referee Mr Benton.

The culmination of this saw Ossett reduced to ten men with eight minutes remaining when central defender Dominic Riordan sent Tom Pratt tumbling and the Ossett defender was shown a second yellow card and therefore red to reduce the visitors to ten men.

The game looked to heading to a scoreless draw but both sides had half chances in the closing stages. Ossett won a corner that saw Mossley scramble the ball away at the third attempt and when the Lilywhites went forward a good attacking move saw John Bennett hammer a left foot drive inches wide of the left hand upright.

Wiz

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