Mossley 0 Oldham Athletic 3

I've learnt from previous years not to look too much into performances at friendlies - the main example from last year was when I saw Mossley beat Hyde, and on the day Mossley beat a disorganised, near-shambolic Hyde side. The obvious conclusion was that Hyde were going to be relegation strugglers. Fast forward to the end of the season, and Hyde were top of the Conference North by some distance, and mainly because they played as a super-organised unit.

So, I guess going off that I shouldn't be thinking 'here we go again' with Mossley after seeing them manage just a single shot in this entire match. A shot that cleared the stand and possibly even the school behind the stand. Yes they were missing some of their first team players and playing Oldham's full first team so the result was entirely expected, but it was the complete lack of attacking threat that was a disappointment.

Early on Oldham seemed to struggle with playing with a ground with a small fence on one side, as they managed to send the ball over it at least 5 times in the opening 10 minutes. When play was stopped for an injury Dickov brought his team over and had a word, and they stopped doing it from then on!

Shortly after Oldham got a (dodgy) penalty, and scored, and really they seized the initiative from there on in. They scored again at the start of the second half, and mainly bossed the game. Mossley finally had some solid spells of possession late on but still failed to create anything with it, and Oldham added a third goal right at the end. 

It was an easy and relaxed first run out for Oldham, so much so that they seemed to repeatedly switch off and give away possession in dangerous areas - fortunately for them Mossley were never actually going to manage to exploit any of these opportunities, so in truth it didn't really matter!

The positive for Mossley is that because they so much sat back and didn't at all make a contest out of it, the game was a manager's dream from Oldham's perspective - no risk of injuries, no risk of embarrassing loss to non league opposition. That means Oldham are likely to be more than happy to come back for another friendly next year - and with a crowd not too far short of 1000 at this game, financially this must be a big pre-season bonus for Mossley.