MOSSLEY PUT DOWN MARKER FOR THE TITLE

GLEN MCCRUM was in bullish form after Mossley swept Rosario aside on Saturday – confidently declaring his team will be in the mix for the title.

The victory at the Glade completed a treble over teams considered as 1B contenders – with Barn United and Jordanstown already put to the sword – and edged Mossley up into seventh place, just three points off early pacesetters UUJ.

With three wins and three losses from their first six league outings, it would appear Mccrum’s men are still searching for some consistency.

But the Mossley chief

(circled) insists he’s unfazed by the defeats, and is backing his players to put a run together and vindicate the faith he has in them.

“We are challenging this season, 100%,” declared Mccrum.

“I think we have a squad which is strong enough to challenge and I think the league is there for the taking this year.

“It looks like it, with Sirocco shifting on last year and Rathfern shifting on, I think there is an opportunity for progression and I think we have a strong enough squad to do that this year.

“We’ve brought in some good players, Scotty Hamilton has come in, Chris Harrison, Ryan Williamson as well, so we have brought four or five players in and I felt that’s all we needed and that has strengthened us from last year.”

With their top goalscorer from last year Lee Graham yet to feature this season – the striker has put his football career on the back-burner to compete in motocross – Mccrum is set to be handed a massive boost when he returns to action in the weeks ahead.

“The good thing is we’ve been scoring goals and winning with him not being there, so with him coming back again that’s only going to strengthen us up further,” he said.

Mccrum felt Mossley were worthy winners against a Rosario side sitting top of the table until Saturday’s defeat, and after using the first few months of the season to size up the competition he is adamant his squad are primed to challenge.

“The guys played exceptionally well yesterday,” he said.

“Beating Rosario is no mean feat and to walk away with three points, three goals and a clean sheet, I was very impressed.

“But it’s the way we have been if I’m honest, we’ve played the top three teams and we’ve beat them all.

“Rosario are up there, Barn are up there and UUJ are up there and we have beat all three of them quite comfortably.

“We should have beat Grove, we battered them but never got anything from it, and we played Dunmurry, scored three goals away from home and got beat 4-3 with four really stupid mistakes that cost us the game, and then St Luke’s, we just weren’t at it.

“Although we’ve lost three and won three we should be sitting with a hell of a lot more points than we are.

“But the guys are still happy, we are getting better week by week and as long as they do that and they get more belief in themselves they know fine rightly they will put points on the table.”