Off-colour Market Drayton Town frustrate boss Martyn Davies

Following up arguably their best performance of the season – an action-packed 4-4 draw with Prescot Cables – Town performed well in the first period, holding Mossley to a one-goal lead and twice going very close to scoring.

But two minutes after the restart, an unlucky own goal by defender Matt Ballard, deflecting Mike Fish’s right wing cross past keeper Mason Springthorpe, triggered the sort of collapse that’s becoming painfully familiar to Town followers.

Within five minutes Max Leonard had added to his earlier, spectacular 30th minute opener and Town were sliding into trouble again.

William Wells briefly helped ward off disaster by rounding off a well worked counter-attack with a fine finish. After this impressive flourish, however, Mossley nailed down the points without too much trouble.

Frustrating

Szyman Czubik, Leonard’s replacement from a full-strength subs bench, teamed up with the busy Fish to lay on the Lilywhites’ fourth for Ben Halfacre on 78 minutes and then on the stroke of time, Fish again set up Halfacre to score again.

“It seems we can either win by one or two goals or lose by three or four, with nothing in between,” lamented Town manager Martyn Davies, pondering his side’s wildly fluctuating results over the season.

“We’re a very long way away from worrying about relegation – there’s plenty of points between us and the bottom teams – but this run of poor form is becoming really frustrating.

“Availability is a problem, especially at away games. Mossley have lost only two at home so we can be pleased with our first half against them. But with only two subs – and one was me – it really showed when they brought on fresh players.”

Town’s home followers have another free day Saturday – their team has another tough game lined up at Colne.