Late goal sinks The Hillmen

GNE travelled on the road to Irlam this weekend on the back of a 2-1 victory in midweek at home to Litherland REMYCA, and with a chance to go the first calendar month unbeaten since 2021.

There were some fresh faces in the matchday squad, as Richard Brodie brought in Eli Fisher into the squad, Tom Lawless returned to the starting XI after being forced to start on the bench on Tuesday.

The first half was devoid of much significant incident of a footballing nature, it was tightly contested in midfield with neither team really able to win the arm-wrestle in there to assert a level of dominance. A long diagonal ball from back to front by Irlam, their modus operandi, saw striker and top scorer Dec Daniels trying to latch onto it. It appeared that between them GNE’s centre backs (Parker & Hopkins) and keeper had it covered.

However, the ball held up in the pitch, a moment’s indecision and Daniels was past Brown, he shot through Hopkins’ legs but fortunately for Glossop skipper Parker slid and blocked on the line to prevent the hosts from taking the lead. A quick throw in moments later and interplay between Mulvey and Lawless, free from the grasp of his markers, saw an opening for midfielder Conal Gallagher whose effort was turned round the post at full stretch by Irlam’s goalkeeper. With the final kick of the opening half Keaton Mulvey drew another good save after he’d once more combined well with Lawless to shoot from a narrow angle.

Goalless at the break, only one caution issued, so far so good if you were intent on limited post match paperwork.

Glossop had their best spell of the match in the opening 20 minutes of the second half. 4 minutes into the half, Tom Lawless broke free of the shackles which were around him, powered past one central defender using his strength to resist all attempts to stop him, and 25 yards from goal was hacked down by the last remaining obstacle between him and the Irlam goal / keeper, the other Irlam centre back. A free kick was duly awarded.

On an afternoon where it was going to take something special to get the hillmen a goal Dylan McMahon was the man to provide it. Wearing #2 but playing on the right hand side of the attacking trio, he controlled a throw in, cut inside his man and hit a curling effort with his ‘weaker’ left foot which found the top corner to put the Hillmen in front. Despite their continued dominance Glossop weren’t able to find a second. They suffered an injury blow on 67 minutes with Jack Hopkins having to depart with injury. Hopkins had been rock solid and powerful in the face of rugged pressure from the Irlam attack and his departure forced a reshuffle with David Badrock moving to centre back and Phil Perry on at left back.

Irlam looked to attack down their right and having introduced more natural wingers on both flanks with attacking changes of their own. Their diagonal outlet ball to their right become their preferred weapon. It was an attack down that flank which led to their equaliser. Irlam countered after an effort from Glossop was blocked at the edge of the Irlam box, they drove down their right and as Alex Brown parried the driven cross, a shot was blocked but midfielder Mason Everton was on had on the edge of the box to find the bottom corner to draw level with 12 minutes to go.

The game became stretched and was end to end in the closing moments. Substitute Kyle Worsley broke for Glossop and as he carried over half way was wrestled to the ground.

Begrudgingly the referee was forced to issue two yellow cards, one for the foul and one for Worsley’s reaction as his understandable frustration boiled over.

Gaby Mooney -Munoz might be a diminutive figure in midfield but what a massive performance he put in again, off the back of his man of the match display in midweek. He was everywhere, his drive and energy relentless and he wasn’t deterred when he was fouled or bounced off players around him.

Like the rest of his teammates he didn’t deserve to be in the losing side, but that was the fate which today’s script had on it, a sting in the tail. A long ball seemed to be one which GNE would deal with but some misunderstanding at the back, a shot which hit the post, the back of Alex Brown and dribbled over the line in the 89th minute secured the 3 points for Irlam.

Richard Brodie was right to be annoyed and frustrated with the two goals we had conceded, the goals which had taken the three points away from his side and saw them fall to their first defeat of 2025. Harsh to say that Glossop threw the points away but as the manager commented in his post match interview his team had ‘emptied the tank’ in their period of dominance but hadn’t added a second and as the game became stretched, especially in the last 10 minutes at 1-1, the gaps were bigger than he wanted and his team were punished.

Into the month of February the Hillmen go then, with the visit of Prestwich Heys to the Asgard Engineering Stadium next Saturday.