Mossley thriller

MOSSLEY produced a spirited fightback from a half-time deficit as they won 3-2 at Padiham in Evo-Stik Division One North.

The first-ever league meeting between the two sides was a thriller.

Ashley Carter opened the scoring for the hosts after just four minutes, though the Lilywhites quickly drew level thanks to Tom Pratt.

Shortly before the interval, Louis Mayers restored Padiham’s lead as the visitors faced an uphill battle in the second half.

The Lilywhites won that tussle, however, as Luke McCarthy levelled matters in the 64th minute, before Andy Keogh pounced to bag the winner with just five minutes to go.

It was a victory which shifted Mossley up a couple of places in the table to ninth.

Delighted joint-manager Peter Band said: “I was really pleased with the lads.

“Despite being behind at half-time, they stuck at their task, they grafted hard in the second half and got the result.

“If we have got designs on maybe pushing up towards the play-off places later in the season, we do need to be winning games at places like Padiham.

“We have ground out some good results lately, though that has also made me think about some of the poor results we had earlier in the season.

“We dropped too many points in the early games, maybe seven or eight from good positions.

“We could quite easily have been sat in the top four, but I’m certainly not complaining with where we are now.

“The players have responded brilliantly and always give Lloyd Morrison and me 110-per-cent.”

The only downside to Saturday’s win came when goalscorer Pratt was sent off in the fourth minute of stoppage time after being shown a second yellow card.

Holders Mossley are next in action on Wednesday when they host Abbey Hey in a Manchester Premier Cup quarter-final tie.