A most frustrating night for Mossley ended with Ossett gaining their first victory of the season. It was a poor game as a spectacle not in the slightest aided by Ossett's one dimensional game plan.

An extremely high defensive line caught the Mossley forwards off-side a seemingly endless number of times and on at least one occasion, when Stuart Wellstead sprung the trap perfectly the assistant referee raised his flag anyway as if on auto-pilot when Wellstead was clearly on-side.

Mossley's inability to break down a poor Ossett side was inevitably to be their undoing. The home side's boom the ball upfield and hope for the best style eventually won them the game.

At that point neither side looked capable of scoring a goal. Mossley huffed and puffed but could find no fluency as the referee's whistle constantly and often needlessly brought the game to a halt.

On the hour Chris Willcock made a triple substitution to attempt to freshen things up by bringing on Richardson, Walker and Settle for Jackson, Shaw and Allen but the changes had little effect on the Lilywhites as an attacking force. Play constantly broke down as every Ossett touch sent the ball hurtling long distance back into the Mossley half.

The breakthrough came when Mossley conceded a left wing corner in the 70th minute which was met by a glancing header from Ossett substitute and former Mossley striker Gareth Hamlet only five minutes after he had entered the fray.

Seven minutes later the result was secured in the home side's favour when Duncan Bray's speculative drive from 20 yards somehow squirmed past Peter Collinge.

Mossley continued to attempt to play football but were frustrated by Ossett's boom or bust style right to the final whistle.

Report by John Cawthorne