Interview | Mossley Captain Andy Keogh

Mossley captain Andy Keogh believes there’s no reason why the club can’t surprise their rivals and reach the playoffs this season.

Photo by Martyn Nolan

Let’s push ourselves

The Northern Premier League West club kicked off their season with a turnaround 2-1 victory over Bootle on Saturday after falling behind in the first half.

Keogh, now in his third spell at the club after initially joining in 2013, started the comeback with an assist for Connor Morris’s first goal for the club.

Despite there being no insistence from the club that they should be aiming for playoff football, Keogh says the squad need to have ambition themselves.

He said: “There’s no pressure on the team, it’s a case of see what you can do. That shouldn’t take away any desire - we should be putting a bit of pressure on ourselves. Let’s go and upset a few people! It’s going to be a bit up and down with the young lads, but if we can get their confidence up, I don’t see any reason why we can’t make the playoffs.”

Mossley recover from poor first half

Ben Hodgkinson’s first half goal had given newly-promoted Bootle the lead at the break, as second half goals from Morris and Kane Hickman’s brilliant solo effort sealed the win.

Keogh admits the team were poor in the first 45 minutes, but regrouped in the second half.

“The first half performance was well below how we’ve played in preseason. We didn’t really cope with that Bootle had to throw at us. The second half was a lot better, and we put in a good performance. We were lucky to get the three points, a draw would have been fair but we took our chances at the end,” he said.

Team boosted by fans back at Seel Park

Photo by Paul Moran

A crowd of 373 were at Seel Park for the return of league football, and Keogh - who has made over 200 appearances for the club in his various spells - credits the fans with giving the team a boost when they needed it.

“It’s great to be back playing competitive football with fans in the ground. We had that spell of playing behind closed doors, there’s just no atmosphere. Football is entertainment -  the sheltered end is making noise, the keeper’s getting a load of stick. It does give you a lift.   You miss these things when you’re playing. I’ve been here a good few years now so I know a lot of the fans and can interact with them. Everybody appreciates it a lot more, players and fans alike. It was bouncing,” he said.

No move into management on the horizon...yet

Midfielder Keogh had a brief spell in charge of the team as interim manager in the 2019/20 season and led the team to two wins in four games before the season was curtailed.  He made the decision to carry on with the club as a player, and has no immediate plans to hang his boots up just yet.

It’s clear that he is happy to keep playing at a club where he feels at home, alongside his work as a bricklayer. “Management is something I’d possibly look at in the future, but not yet. There’s a lot of extra work with management, it’s a 24 hour job. You need to have a good team around you. When I stepped in, I had good lads around me helping out and the squad was settled, I knew them all. I’ll assess it in the future.

“I’ve always been happy at Mossley. It might be a cliche, but at any level a happy player plays their best football. I’ve been lucky with managers, they’ve all wanted me to play here, and it’s a well run non-league club with really good people involved. Players from other clubs come in sometimes and can’t be bothered travelling up here. When you’re playing at Mossley with the fans behind you, you don’t mind if the weather’s a bit dodgy or that the pitch has bumps and a dip - you enjoy it,” he said.