Aggrieved Band hoping Mossley can strike back

MOSSLEY joint-boss Peter Band will be looking to take his frustrations out on High Peak neighbours New Mills on Boxing Day.

The Lilywhites will head to Church Lane on Friday still aggrieved following last weekend’s stunning late 2-1 Evo-Stik League Division One North defeat at high-flying Scarborough Athletic.

“We suffered at Scarborough,” said Band.

“We’d been in the game throughout and when the fourth official put four minutes up for the added time, we thought we were set to earn a good point.

“When they scored their winner the clock read 97:43. We couldn’t believe it.

“We also had Sam Robinson sent off for a tackle that a Scarborough player was equally guilty of, and he only got a yellow.

“There’s no justice with officials sometimes and it’s disappointing.

“When you work so hard as a team, then lose a game in that manner, decisions like that are so costly.

“We’ll just have to bounce back at New Mills now.”

Robinson’s suspension doesn’t kick in yet, but Josh Granite will be banned for Sunday’s home fixture against Bamber Bridge (3pm) after he received a red card in an earlier fixture.

There is an outside chance of a fixture switch with New Mills on Friday, due to the worrying state of the pitch at Church Lane.

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IT is Christmas festive period, so it must be derby day in the North-West Counties League First Division, with resurgent Chadderton welcoming Oldham Boro on Saturday (3pm kick-off).

The hosts are unbeaten in five games so will be strong favourites to defeat a Boro side who are firmly rooted to the bottom of the table.

However, Chaddy joint-boss Steve Patterson remains cautious.

He said: “To be honest I don’t want to hear us classed as favourites, because anything can happen in these derby games. Form goes out of the window as they say.

“I have the utmost respect for Boro, their manager Tony Mills and chairman Mark Kilgannon, and they’ll be really up for this one.

“We’ll have to be on our guard.”

Chaddy and Boro agreed to switch the fixture from its usual Boxing Day slot in the hope that a few additional Oldham and Mossley fans might be attracted.

Admission costs £5, while under-16s gain free entry.