Stalybridge Celtic v Southport

... yes I know, it should really have read "Radcliffe Borough 0 Mossley 1" (four wins in a row now, three of them away from home - now up to 12th !), but we are suffering from some fairly serious computer problems at home at the moment (Mrs Smiffy appears to have obtained a variant of the Kryptik trojan on her pc and it's completely knackered the internet setup), so I was trying to sort that out yesterday afternoon - which went into early evening - so Celtic ended up as the only option.

When I got to Stalybridge Station - the lights were out on Platform 1 - electrical fault (they must have known that Southport were coming - the previous game between the two teams was abandoned on 86 minutes ... when the floodlights went out - electrical fault !!)

It was a much changed side for Celtic, due to injuries and "new boys" - and to me (strictly neutral of course), it looked somewhat disjointed - Hankin looked a lonely figure out on the right while nearly everything came down the other side to new boy Michael Twiss. The other major problem (for Celtic anyway) was the presence of ex-Hyde United man Earl Davis in the centre of things for Southport - to put it simply, he had a blinder - won everything in the air - and quite a lot on the ground as well (as some of the pictures show) - oh yes - pictures are at

Stalybridge Celtic 0 Southport 1

Southport took the lead just on half-time - but had already had one disallowed for offside and one that came back off the bar. The second half was disappointing - the substitutions made little difference, Earl Davis continued to "gobble everything up" - and some of the time-wasting tactics used by Southport were a little hard to take (although it did prove that they had a certain respect for their opposition I guess). So - the three-match unbeaten run came to an end for Celtic, and the win puts Southport four points behind leaders Fleetwood Town (with two games in hand), with Alfreton Town now third after their 5-0 demolition of Droylsden last night.

Meanwhile the Mossley bandwagon keeps rolling on ...
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