Mossley v Flixton (Manchester Premier Cup)

This is going to be hard - and I mean hard - it might be the "Six Tame Sides" site - and I've tried like hell to be as totally impartial as I can on ALL the teams I watch, but you have to remember I'm Mossley first and foremost. To sum up tonight - I've paid seven quid to watch a training session where the dustbins win. Actually that is very unkind to the Flixton team (but it sounded good when I thought of it !).

Let's start at the very beginning eh ? The weather had been rough all day, and after the way the pitch cut up during the Telford game on Saturday, there had to be a doubt - but no - game called ON around 1600 (sorry Woodley - it could have been the second Tuesday in a row !)



Game on - view of floodlights from my front door !

Got to the ground - by heck it looked a heavy pitch - in patches it looked like there had been a "Monster Truck Convention" on Sunday !!



One goalmouth - during the warm-up.



Some tyre tracks from the "Monster Truck Convention".

The game - Mossley had some of the better early chances - Steve Burke had an early header but a foul was ruled against the keeper is the first one that comes to mind. After 10 minutes Mossley 'keeper Trueman spilled a shot - but managed to recover - and five minutes later Burke had another great chance which was well saved by Flixton keeper Bennett. Sixty seconds later Joe Shaw hammered one in that hit the bottom of the far post. If you've read previous posts you'll know by now that Mossley tend to put enough money in the gas meter for 15/20 minutes at a time - and now it ran out. A "give away" in the Mossley half gave ex-Mossley man Leon Grandison a chance to create - but he ignored the shouts from better placed players and it petered out to nowt.

Just before the half hour Mossley did the classic "how to turn attack into defence" when a Mossley corner was cleared, and some smart interplay between the Flixton attack led to Andy Lundy putting the visitors one up. However Mossley did come back after this and two minutes before half-time Lee Shillito put in a good cross from the right and Joe Shaw buried it into the far corner of the net to send us in for our half-time tipple at 1-1.



Yes it's blurry (someone sponsor me a DSLR !) - but it's 1-1.

After that it all went horribly wrong - the half-time drinkie was almost finished - but the half-time talk had once again worked wonders as Flixton scored another whilst the bulk of the pathetic 82 crowd were still exiting the Social Club. I have to be honest now - me and probably about 90% of the crowd seemed to lose interest at this point - and I have to say it either rubbed off on the players, or some of the players lack of interest had rubbed off on the fans.



A Flixton defender points out that same patch of mud that was there on Saturday - see the Telford post below !!

I've little to say about the second half - it was cold and lonely up the School End with only a camera for company - and having been through over 50 pics before coming on here, there's very little to show for the final 45 minutes - blurry or otherwise.




A late Peter Wright free-kick

There were a few chances - we even seemed to push forward at times - whilst leaving gaping holes at the back that were happily exploited by the Flixton "Man of the Match" Ian Howard (cries of "Sign him on" come to mind !). Mossley had a couple of free-kicks - Melford Knight had an overhead kick which went wide - Steve Burke had a shot that went wide - did Mossley look like scoring - not really - oh and Melford had a shot which may have gone in - but smacked into Mossley's Fraser Robinson on the way (and flattened him !).

Flixton were well worth their win tonight - and it's worth pointing out that not only are they one division below Mossley - but they also played a fair sprinkling of their reserve team tonight (they have an important FA Vase game against Retford United on Saturday - last 32 and all that).

Which makes it all the more galling after the spirited display by Mossley against Telford last Saturday. Those who went in the club after the game - the hardy faithful - were totally speechless for a good ten minutes - and when there are players and management walking into the club after the game with smiles on faces (and the ubiquitous mobile phones in hand) it does tend to aggravate feelings still further. There's an important meeting up at Mossley on Thursday night this week - I quote from tonight's programme: "..this meeting is vital to the future well being of Mossley AFC". Many Mossley fans have put two and two together - and got four I think. Frith willing, I should be there to find out if we're right.- but after tonight's performance - there may be some who just "don't care anymore".