Mellor overcome well drilled Heaton Mersey side for 3rd successive cup win

For our U12s we always look forward to playing Heaton Mersey. They're a good lacrosse side, well drilled, play the game hard but fair and are always a challenge. I'm pleased to say the latest encounter was no different. You can almost tell how the shape of a game will turn out from the warm up - Mersey arrived at Mellor early, and were changed and carefully going through their warm ups and drills before most of the Mellor boys had even turned up, not that we were late though! While Mellor were pleased to welcome midfield maestro Miles back to the team following injury, we lost defensive rock Ed to illness, so a squad of 13 assembled to take on the visitors.

Q1
We seem to have this dreadful habit of conceding first, and it happened again as Mersey scored direct from the initial face-off. Wake up boys was the shout! We started to pass the ball round nicely, but Mersey, who are particularly well drilled in defence, were holding firm. However, after a good save by the Mersey keeper he gave the ball straight to Charlie, who doesn't pass up on opportunities like that and it was 1 - 1. And the good news was Charlie's stick was in full working order!

A pattern then emerged that continued for most of the game. Mellor with the majority of possession, passing the ball neatly but struggling to penetrate the Mersey defence. The attack were going to have to work hard to pull their defenders out of possession. Nice assist from Dyl to Miles and it was 2 - 1 to Mellor. Mersey then got the next two, both following quick breaks and we were down by one. Ed was being missed in the Mellor's defence and our shape, particularly compared to Mersey, was poor. However, Miles repaid the compliment passing to Dyl to score and we were all square at the end of the quarter. This was turning into a good watch, Mellor attack vs HM defence, followed by quick breaks from Mersey.

Q2
This pattern continued into Q2. And, as far as I can think, for the first time that I've been watching the boys play, we had a quarter that was goalless ! Plenty of shots from Mellor, and possession, but we just couldn't break through. The Mersey keeper was also doing his part and it was a shutout. In fact, the main highlight for the home fans was the point when a misplaced pass sent Stu and Simon reeling, with even the famous blue clipboard unable to save them!
Another (semi) interesting fact - absolutely no send offs in the first half at all, for either side, again it's been a long time since that has happened.

Q3
The chess game continued. Mellor in attack, passing the ball, looking for ways through the Mersey defence, until Charlie had obviously decided he'd had enough, grabbed the ball and scored a great solo goal. Mellor 4 - 3 up. However, back Mersey came again, this time as unfortunately Jacob passes straight to an attacker for them to score (we're in white Jacob!) before Seb O nicely cuts through to get his first of the game. After a quiet first half Seb O sprung into life in this quarter, and got another, along with Charlie who scored again. Mersey got two back but we were in the lead for the first time, 7 - 6 at the end of Q3. And still no sending offs!

Q4
We started the last quarter well, and remembering how well we'd played in the last 15mins vs Stockport last week it was time to be optimistic. Seb fed Charlie to score again before a really great move was finished by Seb O for his hat trick following a smart pass from Sammy. You felt at this point given we were three ahead and enjoying so much of the possession that it would be difficult for Heaton to get back into the game. They did get one back but another assist from Miles for Leo to score meant we finished the game as 10 - 7 winners. And you're probably thinking did we go the whole match without any sending offs....well nearly. A slash meant HM had one in the bin and this lead to unintended offside so they were without two for half a minute. Still, pretty good.

All in all an interesting game to watch, and a good lesson for our boys in how to break down a strong defence. We were good in midfield and attack, but in reality let Mersey score too many in from quick breaks and were relatively disorganised in defence.