Hillmen rescue a point

Glossop’s squad depth proved the key on Saturday as once again the Hillmen showed resilience on the road to come from behind and equalise late on to claim a well deserved point.

January’s squad selection dilemmas, where first team players were being left out of the match day 16, must seem a distant memory to manager Richard Brodie.

Following departures of Pennington, Badrock and Fisher in the last fortnight he had to deal with midfielders Gallagher and Djalo suspended and the
absence of Jack Hopkins after picking up an injury in training.

That meant that there was a debut for new signing Bradley Elms alongside Oliver Parker in the heart of the defence, Parker’s fifth central defensive
partner of the season, and a place on the bench for recently resigned Kasper Mialkowski as the starting lineup saw Mooney-Munoz return from injury with Worsley and Reilly starting in the front three and Tom Lawless join Brodie on the bench.

Glossop went into the game against the league’s most in form side who’d picked up nineteen points from the last twenty one available and had kept clean sheets in six of those seven games.

GNE keeper Alex Brown was on hand to make a couple of saves in the opening half but despite the territorial dominance Cheadle didn’t carve out much in the way of clear cut opportunities.

Glossop got a bit of a foothold in the game as the half progressed and their best two chances both came in similar fashion.

First it was fullback Dylan McMahon, overlapping down the right whose low cross picked out Oliver Mackay, fresh from his goal last week, but his
effort from 12 yards out was straight at the Cheadle goalkeeper who got down well.

Just as the half closed winger Worsley crossed to Keaton Mulvey whose blocked shot fell to Phil Perry, who had joined the attack on the left, and his
goal bound effort was deflected over.

In between those chances came a massive shout for a GNE penalty with Lew Reilly going down on the box under a challenge.

Insufficient contact was the referee’s opinion, even thought the shin pad on shin pad contact was sufficiently audible 30 yards away by the management team’s dugout to cause frustration and the futile appeal.

Glossop came out after the break with a different approach to pressing the Cheadle tactics, and forced the hosts into becoming more direct.

It felt like a moment of brilliance was going to be required to break the deadlock and that was how things unfolded.

Oliver Parker gave away a needless, soft foul for a push in the back of the Cheadle forward, who was going away from the GNE goal, resulting in a free kick on the edge of the ‘D’ in a central position.

Oliver Putnam saw his initial effort crash into the well placed wall, it could have fallen anywhere, it rebounded back perfectly to the Cheadle number 10 whose second effort was a right foot bullet of a strike which flew into the top right corner of Alex Brown’s net.

Glossop have produced a number of vital late goals in 2025, securing draws at Colne and Litherland late on.

They managed another late equaliser here, thanks to quick thinking from Mulvey, who was bright throughout the game.

His quick throw in, to the feet of Mackay, who was rushing forward anticipating taking the throw himself, allowed him to look up and spot the diminutive Bardsley making a run into the box.

Mackay’s deep right footed cross was expertly met by the youngster, who has found minutes hard to come by in recent weeks after his own injury setback, as he got inside the right back and stooped to head home and draw the Hillmen level with ten minutes of the normal time remaining.

The tempo of the home side increased as they went looking for a winner but they found Glossop’s defence, led by the impressive, solid debutant Elms there at its heart, too difficult to break down.

They put a couple of dangerous crosses into the box themselves, but this time were unable to get on the end of them.

Up next Glossop’s toughest remaining test of the season, at home against West Didsbury & Chorlton, at 19:30 on Saturday as part of the ground hopping weekend.