Under 12s meet their match in the Cup

A valiant comeback but Timperley delivered a strong performance to dump us into this year's Plate Competition

After an eleven-game winning streak, the Mellor wheels came somewhat off against a well-drilled Timperley side who avenged their Flags final defeat from last April in convincing style.

Mellor failed to produce anywhere near their recent fine form with plenty of near-misses (including an almost own-goal) and so the game was virtually over by half time with the score at 10-4 following two 5:2 quarters. Credit must go to Timperley who came out of the blocks strongly and caused panic in the Mellor defence, scoring seemingly at will with too many goals from Timperley’s number 56 making the supporters feel like they were watching some scary lacrosse version of Groundhog Day, through closed fingers.

A second half ‘win’ papered over the cracks a little, but this did at least bring a little more respectability to the overall score of 15-10.

Our goals came from Finn Howie, James Kennedy, Eddie Liles, Sammy Chalmers (2), Miles Plant (3) and two from Charlie Hodgson, who was one ray of light in what was otherwise a pretty foggy team performance.

The post-match autopsy focused on the team not having been battle-hardened in recent games and almost forgetting how to dig in and grind out a result. Our ground-ball was weak and passing often lacking quality, however, the boys ultimately didn’t give up, winning the final quarter 3-1, but it was a case of too little, too late.

In defeat, the boys will learn much more from this game than the comfortable victories which have flowed of late. Next week gives them a great chance to bounce back and prove that this game was just a blip in an otherwise excellent season so far.