Mossley’s Youth Team reached their first cup final on Sunday when they beat Ardwick 2-0 after extra time to progress to the final of the Manchester FA Youth Cup.

That the Mossley boys took 120 minutes to beat vastly inferior opposition was due to some wayward finishing, desperate defending and some excellent goalkeeping by the lanky Ardwick custodian.

Mossley ought to have opened the scoring inside two minutes when Kyle McDonagh fired over from point-blank range after some neat interplay opened the visitors defence.

Chance after chance came and went for Mossley while at the other end keeper Nick Howard was a virtual spectator throughout.

Despite creating opportunities almost at will Mossley failed to unlock the Ardwick defence in the 90 minutes and the game was forced into extra time.

Mossley and Ardwick were both reduced to ten men when Jordan Cuff reacted to a bad foul by the visitors right back and both players were shown red cards.

Ardwick’s defending had already become ragged when Mossley finally took the lead in the 6th minute of the extra thirty thanks to a stunning 25 yard strike by top scorer Joe Heap.

The game was over three minutes later when Fabio Abreu cut inside from the right to fire home an unstoppable shot.

Mossley had several more chances to increase their lead but will be happy enough in the end with the win.