More than anything this game was a case of 'after the Lord Mayor's Parade'. In a match where the conditions appeared to be in their favour (good weather , a perfect playing surface and coming off the back of an emphatic win) Mossley failed to impose their stylish brand of football on the game, and only the in-form presence of Lee Bracey between the posts stopped the Lilywhite's returning from Derbyshire pointless.
Belper kicked-off the game and, to use a cliche, the visitors were still in the changing room as for the next fifteen minutes Mossley barely got a touch of the ball. As has been the case in many previous games Mossley stood off their opponents allowing them time and space to advance on their goal but fortunately, on the few times Belper really threatened, Lee Bracey was able to keep them out.
Hopes that Mossley would be able to ride out this early spell of sustained pressure were obliterated in the fourteenth minute when Belper took the lead. It was a goal simple in its construction and one that will give the Mossley management nightmares as it was so easily avoidable. After a rare call into action the Belper keeper rolled the ball out to left-back Butler who carried the ball forward to the half-way line without encountering so much as a challenge. He in turn fed former Droylsden forward Wael Nazha (again given time and space) whose cross found Hudson alone in the box and his square ball fell to Ben Walker (apparently being man marked by the invisible man) who put the ball past Bracey and into the back of the Mossley net.
It was no more than Belper deserved and Mossley's response was less than encouraging. Instead of trying to play their way back into the game Mossley resorted to the long ball game and it proved to be just as fruitless as the last time it was used against Ossett. Mike and Downey were towered over by Belper's central defensive duo so any ball pumped up in the air to them was wasted and any potential spell of pressure gone in an instant. When the ball was played to their feet things looked more promising, but the few openings created barely troubled the home keeper, being both weak and directly at him. Only once during the first forty five minutes did an effort beat the keeper and, agonisingly for Rhodri Giggs, it narrowly beat the wrong side of the post too.
After the interval Mossley looked a bit sharper and started playing the ball around on the floor like we know they can do and, after both sides traded shots against the crossbar within a matter of seconds, the visitors started to dominate the game. The Nailers response to Mossley's pass and move play was pretty ham-fisted and they gave away a succession of free-kicks around their own half but, as seems to be the norm with Mossley, the set-pieces were rushed and came to nothing.
The equalizer just after the hour mark was a thing of beauty. A rare Belper foray was quickly countered when John Hore played a forty yard pass upfield to Chris Downey. Controlling the ball and beating his marker with the same touch he vollyed the ball past the keeper from just inside the area.The goal added extra impetus to Mossley's attack and they should have taken the lead when Carl Rezai's cut back after a surge into the box flew across an unguarded goal, needing only the slightest of touches to deflect its path into the net. Sadly though the forwards were all on the back foot and the chance went begging. Despite losing Leon Mike with a suspected hamstring injury the reshuffling of Mossley's attack didn't seem to cause much disruption to the visitors play, but whilst they huffed and puffed carving out openings Belper always looked dangerous on the counter attack. Once again though Lee Bracey was on hand to keep the scoreline level, his best save coming in the last few minutes of the game when he denied both Belper and Walker a second goal with a low stop at his near post from point blank range.
Overall a point for each side was probably the fairest result. Both teams created the same number of openings but the only difference was that Belper made our keeper work whilst we gave the belper custodian an easier time of it despite the long spells of pressure we had in the second half. It's impossible to expect the team to perform at the level seen in the Rossendale game every match but the fact we can blow so hot and cold is a trifle worrying. Still, we recovered from a poor start and a draw is certainly not the end of the world, but the thought niggling about in the back of my head is that against the better sides in the league we're not going to be allowed chance to come back from slow starts. Something else to add to the 'to do' list I feel...
THE MATCH IN ONE WORD: Huffing
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