Mossley 6 - 4 Warrington Town

NWCFL: 16th August 2003

As I write this, almost 24 hours later, I still can't quite believe how difficult we made it for ourselves against Warrington. If yesterday was a taster of what we can expect over the course of the season then there's going to be a couple of hundred people suffering from severe nervous exhaustion come May.

As good a side as Warrington were, certainly a lot stronger than last seasons side, they're not as good as we allowed them to be. As it's the first game of the season though, I'm not going to lay into an area of the team that has been solid and consistent for many a month. It would be very easy, and extremely time consuming, to list the faults and mistakes made by the Mossley defence yesterday but everybody is allowed an off day and hopefully they've got this seasons out of their system.

The first game of the season is not the time for finger pointing and character assassinations from the terraces, what needs to be said will no doubt have been done so in the changing room by the management after the game. Another performance at the back like that against Trafford and Colne and it will be a cause for concern but for now, let's put it down to first day jitters. Of course if we'd lost I might not be so generous but we didn't and we can thank for that, in no small part, Tony Caroll.

The veteran striker has certainly responded to the competition there is now for forward positions at the club and yesterday was probably his best performance in a Mossley shirt. Playing with a 4-5-1 formation puts a lot of pressure on a sole forward but Carroll handled it excellently holding up the ball and drawing the midfield into the game. It was his pass at the edge of the box that set up Josh Howard to score Mossley's first after 10 minutes, Howard taking it past two defenders before slotting it into the bottom right hand corner. Nine minutes later Carroll was himself on the score sheet when he netted Russell Headley's left wing cross. His third came 12 minutes into the second half, once again coming from another cross only this time from Matty Taylor on the right.

Unfortunately for us though Warrington were scoring at the other end with alarming regularity as well. Apart from their first goal, which was a well taken piece of individual skill, the ease in which they scored was very concerning. On three occasions an opponent was allowed to head home unmarked from a Bermingham taken corner. It wouldn't be so bad if the player had managed to lose their marker but there was no marker to lose, even Emile Heskey couldn't have failed to score against us from a corner yesterday.

Just moments before Warrington's fourth Mossley had changed to a 4-4-2 formation and after the restart the team looked more comfortable as Warrington never really threatened again. The introduction of Jamie Almond gave the home side another attacking dimension on the right and it was his good work on the edge of the box that allowed Alan Bailey to grab a debut, and eventual game winning, goal. Until the change in formation Bailey had very much been a peripheral figure playing out of position on the right hand wing. With two men now playing up front Mossley were more of a threat, especially with Carroll and Bailey being fed from both wings by Almond and Headley and through the middle by Howard. It was a combination of these players that almost produced the goal of the game when Carroll hit the cross bar on the turn from the edge of the box. He wasn't to be denied moments later however, as more good work on the edge of the box allowed him to net his fourth and Mossley's sixth.

Overall a good start to the season but, perhaps, only one that can only be enjoyed in hindsight. We certainly looked a lot better when we moved to playing two up front so it will be interesting to see how we start against Trafford. Finally the world may be constantly changing, often for the better so it's also reassuring to see that referees are as reliably crap as ever. It might have been his only real blunder but it could have been a huge one with the score at 4-3 to Mossley. The decision to award an indirect free-kick instaed of a penalty when the full back brought down Tony Coyne in the box will forever remain a mystery. Who'd have thought that deliberately tripping someone up with only the keeper to beat was obstruction?

THE MATCH IN ONE WORD: Interesting.