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City rack up vital victories

14/ 2/2001

North West Counties Division One - Salford City 2 Mossley 1

TWO late second-half goals turned this game on its head and earned three valuable league points for Salford City.

The strong, gusting wind was a dominant feature of the match but visitors Mossley were only able to capitalise on it once in the first half. On the half hour mark, an attempted Salford clearance was chested down by Mossley midfielder Richard Harris. Harris then put Andy Gayle in the clear and he gave Phil Melville no chance with a strong shot to put his side in front.

Prior to this Salford centre half Dave Chadwick had watched his snap shot from a corner go narrowly wide and Mattie Hughes just failed to make contact with a low, hard cross into the six-yard box from Rhodri Giggs. But chances for both teams were at a premium with the majority of the action taking place in midfield.

This continued to be the pattern in the second half until matters changed 15 minutes from the end. Franny Vaughan pushed play wide from a congested midfield to full back Tony Cullen, overlapping down the right wing. The defender then played a delightful one-two with Hughes and finished off the neat build-up with a crisp, low drive past Rob Hackney in the Mossley goal for the equaliser.

With City now apparently guaranteed at least a share of the spoils they went in search of the decider, which came in controversial circumstances just five minutes from time. Hughes cut inside a defender on the left wing and headed for the penalty box. He was unceremoniously brought down in the next tackle and the referee, without hesitation, pointed to the penalty spot. The Mossley players closest to the incident certainly were not in agreement with the decision but Salford's Karl Margison patiently waited for the furore to die down and then calmly stepped forward to convert the perfect penalty past Hackney.

City seemed to have rubbed salt in the wounds of the deflated opposition when Hughes unleashed a shot into the net past Hackney only to be whistled back for handball earlier in the approach work.

With Kidsgrove Athletic's defeat in midweek and St Helens Town continuing to drop points, this was a vitally important win for the Moor Lane side. City have no fixture this weekend and are next in action on Tuesday night at Mossley, kick off 7.45pm, in the semi final of the Manchester County Premier Cup.

• A GOOD second-half performance from Salford on Tuesday night maintained their recent run of successes at home to Curzon Ashton. Goals from Tony Cullen, after a wicker deflection, and Mattie Hughes sealed a 2-0 win.