This was far from a convincing performance by the Lilywhites under 18's as they made hard work of dispatching bottom of the table Nantwich Town at Seel Park on Sunday.

The visitors worked extremely hard to limit an off-key Mossley side to half chances in a first half that was a particularly poor spectacle.

Mossley scored their only clear chance of the half when Adam Bezzina latched onto Brian Tottoh's through ball to fire home from the edge of the box on 15 minutes, but Mossley's tendancy to hold onto the ball for too long in midfield and then get caught off-side as the ball was finally dispatched forward was particularly infuriating.

Nantwich equally struggled to find any fluency at all though they did hit the bar with a speculative long range shot though the first half was like watching a game played in slow motion.

The game didn't start to come alive until after the 55th minute when midfield starlet Jake Hibbs replaced Tom Minnock in midfield and Hibbs, returning after a foot injury' set about unlocking Nantwich's stubborn resistance.

Mossley finally got their second goal on 65 minutes when Saul Henderson received a pass on the right, skipped past a couple of tackles and rifled a fine shot into the far corner that gave visitors keeper Bailey no chance.

The now inevitable third goal cam,e five minutes later when Bezzina wriggled free and made space for himself to score from close range.

With the result now confirmed Mossley enjoyed their best spell of football and added a fourth goal through Henderson who again did well to open up the visitors defence.

Heavy Mossley pressure brought a fifth goal for Brian Tottoh in the 82nd minute before Nantwich scored a late consolation through captain Josh Thornton with just two minutes remaining.

Report by Wizard