The youth team gave easily their worst performance of the season at Marine last night when they went down 2-0.

A workmanlike Marine displayed good energy levels and commitment and worked very hard to knock Mossley out of their stride. Mossley on the other hand looked a shadow of the team we have seen this season with several key players failing to deliver on the night.

Although Mossley were without a recognised goal keeper for the second game on the bounce, as keepers Nick Howard (hand injury) and James Dean (shoulder injury) were not available, this can not be used as an excuse, as Kyle McDonagh gave a reassured performance in their absence.

Following an evenly matched opening Marine took the lead on 23 mins when a hopeful lob from the halfway line over the top of the napping Mossley defence saw Peter Donnally round McDonagh to open the scoring.

This failed to provoke a response from the youngsters who far to often were bullied off the ball by the home team. The best Mossley could muster in the opening half was a couple of goal mouth scrambles and a tame shot from the edge of the box from Antony Dorney.

The second half saw Ryan Smith replace the injured Wayne Gordon at right back. Joe Heap made several good runs down the right flank in the early stages cutting into the box, but was unable to find a finish.

On 64 mins, Jordon Cuff was cynically brought down from behind by Marine Captain Jack Craig. The tackle was quite brutal and Cuff was lucky not to suffer serious injury and in the melee that followed Mico Lewis was shown a yellow card as was Craig for the tackle when the severity of the challenge surly deserved a straight red.

It wasn't until the last 15 mins that Mossley showed the urgency to win the game and began to press the Marine goal and on 79 mins had the ball in the back of the Marine goal when Alex Byrne lobbed keeper Luke Picken who managed to get a hand to the ball and Heap tapped in the rebound only to see the linesman raise his flag for off side.

The youngsters continued to press and on 83 mins Byrne found himself with the ball at his feet 7 yards in front of an open goal following great work down the left from Heap, only to fire the ball over the bar.

In the final minutes of the game Paul Taylor dispossessed Alex Chesters on the halfway line and raced through on goal to fire passed McDonagh to seal the win for the home side.

Report by Rob Byrne