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Lisnagarvey,s league plans took another jolt at The Glade on Saturday when a spirited Mossley team defeated them by 2 goals to 1.
Having already drawn with Raphoe, Garvey could not afford to drop points but they began slowly and after some indecisive marking in the defence, Ryan McCrea had plenty of space to score at the right hand post in the 3rd minute of the game.
Mossl;ey could not convert their first penalty corner in the 9th minute and a minute later Beattie struck the upright when well placed and in the 12th minute Scott McNeill had another good chance to extend Mossley,s lead.
Garvey gradually were getting their game together and in the 20th minute Timmy Cockram slid his opening penalty corner inches past the right hand post.
A second set piece in the 30th minute was switched around the circle but in the end the ball was cleared and Garvey were still behind by the single goal at the interval.
With Patrick Martin, son of Olympian Stephen Martin, finding his feet in his first senior match, Garvey began to control more of the mid field and pressure was put on the Mossley defence. Mark Daniel had a shot well saved by new Mossley goalkeeper, Owen Doole and seconds later Daniel Buser also saw a shot blocked by the agile keeper.
Mossley wasted their 3rd penalty corner in the 41st minute while Garvey saw Cockram,s flick saved by Doole and the rebound from Brian Waring also blocked as Garvey tried hard to find the equaliser.
Their 4th penalty corner in the 45th minute was also saved by Doole and the two resulting rebound were scrambled to safety by a desperate Mossley defence.
Al last in the 49th minute, Cockram caught his drag flick from the 5th corner perfectly and the ball went past Doole into the right hand corner of his goal and Garvey were well back in the game.
Five minutes later, however, Mossley caught Garvey on the break and McClean had two chances to score before a penalty stroke was awarded and Ryan McCrea added his second goal of the game and his team were again in front with two thirds of the match completed.
Garvey threw everything into attack and during the last 15 minutes created enough chances to win the game let alone draw; open misses by Greg Thompson and Jason Lynch plus two more unsuccessful penalty corners continued the frustration for the Garvey team and when Doole saved from Cockram in the last few seconds, Mossley knew they had done enough to take the precious league points and more problems for a less than penetrative Garvey team to ponder as they take on lowly North Down at Comber Road tomorrow; three points are absolutely vital from this encounter.
Hopefully, skipper John Gray will be over his injured hip and Mark Raphael will also return to the squad.