This was a thoroughly miserable afternoon at the seaside for all connected with Mossley FC.

It was always going to be difficult against a home side under a new management team and fighting for their individual futures.For the second game running Mossley made a poor start and on 5 minutes Danny Bartlle buried a shot wide of Martin to give the home side an early lead.

On 10 minutes the real problem started as the first of a number of flares were thrown on to the pitch .Minutes later Mossley won their first corner but in the customary melee prior to the kick Jamie McLennan was adjudged to have head-butted a home defender and a red card was shown.

In a hasty reshuffle Danny McLaughlin was brought off and Harrison came on into midfield as Quansah dropped back into defence.Even more misfortune came on 28 mins as Jack Hindle played Bartle in for his second goal.

Further flares were thrown on to the pitch culminating in a man. dressed simply in underpants entered the playing area carrying a flare.The police were called and a number of vehicles arrived but inexplicably they failed to approach the troublesome minority -a complete dereliction of their duty.

Mike Fish nearly got Mossley back into the game just before the break with a long range solo effort and shortly afterwards the same player rounded the keeper but his goal bound effort was kicked off the line.

The game was effectively ended as a contest a few minutes into the second half as home full back Louis Barnes overlapped down the right and crossed for Danny Andrews to scramble the ball into the net .Further goals came,both from the combative Jack Hindle.The first on 60 minutes saw him waltz pasta number of nonexistent challenges by the Mossley defence and another routine finish on 65 minutes completed the rout.

The last 25mins had the atmosphere of a preseason training game but with a bad tempered undertone due to a number of poor refereeing decisions.

So all in all a complete disaster with inept defending,poor refereeing,lack of proper stewarding and lazy policing making it a dreadful day out for the club .Things can only get better.....

Ray Moreland