Mossley v North Ferriby United

Mossley 20th - North Ferriby 16th. Yep I suppose it has to go down as a "must win" game (but aren't they all when you're in 20th place ??).

The day started brightly - the pictures that I'd sent to that magical website www.cheeseontour.com had been uploaded onto the site - an incredible site it is as well (plug plug - see the Hofdingi cheese at Sunnmork Shopping Centre in Hveragerdi - see the Hvitur Kastali cheese at Keflavik Airport !!) Me and Mrs Smiffy then went to Asda to load up the house with food after being away all week - we even found time to get a new CD player for the kitchen. Lunch was ham and mustard sarnies, and then a trip to the Royal Bank of Scotland "hole in the wall" found the jocks wanting - and me still wanting money - thank heavens for those ethically-minded peeps at the Co-op where football money was duly obtained.

As I arrived at Seel Park I realised that literally 24 hours earlier I'd been in an outdoor swimming pool in Iceland - the "Blue Lagoon" near Grindavik - geothermally heated so dead hot whatever the weather - the heat was certainly on Mossley this afternoon.

The Blue Lagoon - steam and all - air temperature about zero.....

The first 20 minutes or so were fairly even - a couple of free kicks for David Eyres to "have a go" but nothing really clear-cut. On the down side, Mossley lost two defenders - both Steve Shiel and Jonathon Smith went off with injuries, and the loss of Smith was especially hard, as he's been one of the few real success stories in the last few months.

Jon Smith before his premature departure today.

Just before the half-hour, new loan signing (yes another loan signing) Clive Moyo-Modise (a spit for Will Smith !!) cut in well from the left and fizzed in a shot that hit the bar - had that gone in, the rest of this report would/could have been so different (that line borrowed from the "Department of the Bleedin' Obvious"). It was then time for the "Curse of the Golden Goal" to kick in - I had 39 - so it was in the 40th minute that a shot from Ferriby's Chris Boulder "hit something" and contrived to loop over the head of the stranded Steve Wilson to give NFU a rather undeserved lead - at that moment I felt no-one deserved to be in the bloody lead !

Half-time saw the inevitable scanning of the Sky videprinter to check out the "scores around us" - Radcliffe drawing, Ashton drawing, Leek drawing, Kendal losing - there's time we thought - there's time. Whilsl we're in the half-time break, here's something else to take your mind off football - the mighty "Strokkur" at Geysir which erupts every five minutes or so.



Strokkur erupts - again - come back in five minutes for another ....

Second half - and seven minutes in, it all erupted at the wrong bloody end when Neil Allison found himself free at the back to convert a corner to give North Ferriby a 2-0 lead - the lack of a Smith and a Shiel was obvious. This was the cue for the already shaky Mossley team performance to literally come apart at the seams. David Eyres was doing his damndest to keep some sort of coherence going, and Moyo-Modise was literally ploughing a lone furrow up front - but apart from those two, there was no teamwork, no precision, no nothing. It was starting to become painful to watch - so just to cheer you up, here's a picture of the mighty Gulfoss waterfall....



Then, true to form, Mossley started to battle a bit, putting a bit of pressure on - call it "last chance saloon", call it desperation - but why oh why oh why do they always leave it so bloody late ?? Let's give a team a couple of goals start, bring everyone down to the point of complete despair/indifference - and then "turn it on" for a bit at the end. "Turn it on" is probably pushing it a bit however - there was still no pattern, no guile - it was just putting a bit of pressure on an admittedly not very brilliant opposition !!

With seven minutes left, Clive Moyo-Modise managed to find himself some space in the box to plant one past Pecora in the Ferrby goal to make it 2-1.




Modise (out of picture left) makes it 2-1 (ball out of picture right) and catches cameraman between rock and hard place !

I've got a few pictures of the last ten minutes which show the Ferriby keeper on the floor a lot - but maybe the phrase "aimless pressure" sums it up a lot better - much "huffing and puffing", but we never really looked like blowing the North Ferriby house down.

Turls and Modise put some late presssure on Pecora.

After the game - yeah the complete bloody indifference came back - at least for some they had the "enjoyment" of watching United scrape a draw against Reading - even when Secretary Bob came round with the full Unibond Prem results, it seemed that few were that bothered - was it an air of resignation, or more an air of inevitability - a really sad state of affairs isn't it ??

Next Saturday it's Fleetwood away (yes they who stuffed leaders AFC Telford 3-0 last Tuesday) - there WILL be a minibus going - there WILL be people in it as well - but I've just looked at the calendar to see evening dinner date with friends, so the jury is out on Smiffy's attendance.

Just had a thought - today's captain was Jonathon Smith - and Captain Smith went down with the "Titanic" did he not ??

Anyways, to cheer you ALL up (!!) I leave you with a picture of part of the Solheimajokull glacier - now that WAS amazing - yes that black stuff is solid ice - as is the blue stuff.