The Raphoe 1st XI Men suffer another defeat despite showing real promise in the early stages of the game.
Raphoe 1 Mossley 4
Pictures by Joe Boland, North West Newspix
The home side started the game on the front foot, dominating the possession and chances in the first 15 minutes.
They played some lovely hockey and chances fell to both forwards James Wilson and Tommy Orr early on.
Mossley couldn’t handle the pace of Adrian Crumley on the right wing, he carried the ball into dangerous positions numerous times and was able to pick out teammates.
It was from one of Crumleys forays forward that Raphoe got the opening goal. Orr’s movement off the ball was excellent early on and he got onto the end of Crumley’s pass into Mossleys 25. From here Raphoe strung together their best passing move of the game.
Orr picked out Keith Meehan who did well to find Ian McGonigle at the top of the circle. McGonigle was very composed and committed keeper and defenders before releasing to Wilson at the back post for an easy finish. 1-0 Raphoe.
From here the home side continued to play well, again Crumley causing havoc. He got through one on one with the Mossley keeper and was taken down unfairly but the umpire didn’t seem to agree and a hit out was awarded.
It was 20 minutes into the game before Mossley had a decent chance on goal.
From a short corner they levelled the game up. A low drag flick into the bottom left corner beat keeper David Moore and was almost stopped on the line by Alan Meehan, but it ricocheted off his stick into the net. 1-1.
This equalising goal seemed to have a detrimental effect on Raphoe’s confidence as their performance dropped significantly.
Soon after the away side were 2-1 up. Raphoe’s Simon Goudie tried to carry the ball out of defence and when he played the ball off a forwards shinguards, the entire defence paused expecting a free out, but there was no whistle and Mossley passed to the back post for an easy tap in. The half ended 2-1 to Mossley.
The Raphoe team got a reality check at half-time about getting their heads in the right place and realising they were still very much in the game.
Unfortunately Raphoe couldn’t find the level they had produced in the early stages of the game and Mossley dominated the second half.
Meehan and Goudie picked up a green and yellow card respectfully at different stages in the half and Mossley capitalised on this, scoring one from open play and another from a short corner.
The game finished 4-1 to Mossley.
A disappointing result but Raphoe will learn lessons from the game and seek to improve when they travel away to Cliftonville on Saturday 18th Nov with a 2.30pm start.
Raphoe: David Moore, Simon Goudie, Evan Lyttle, Alan Meehan, Tom Eaton, Ian McGonigle, Keith Meehan, Mark Rutherford, Adrian Crumley, Tommy Orr, James Wilson, Stephen Cleverly, Zack West, Vincent Devenney, Coaches, Richard Eaton, Rodney Bates.
