U14's extend their winning run

This was one of the best games Mellor U14s have played this season. For most of the game they were bright, quick, patient and made intelligent use of the ball on a tricky astroturf pitch. Timperley were good opponents but lacked the consistency that Mellor played with and too many of the Timperley moves broke down. Mellor on the other hand retained the ball well and stayed organised for most of the game when they were defending.
Sam Griffiths opened the scoring, quickly followed by a lovely goal from the ever ready Drew Bickerton. Mellor held on to the possession for most of the quarter and the reward for that patience was a fine goal from Tom Brady.
In the second quarter Timperley’s bigger players started to make more of an impact and scored an early goal. This was cancelled out by Ben Tipping winning yet another face-off and setting Eddie Jenkins on a run which led to a great solo goal. Rufus Lancaster finished off a lovely Mellor move from a neat assist by Eddie. Timperley finally managed to outwit the Mellor defence for a second goal but the response again came from Ben Tipping who picked up a loose ball and made a fine solo run to pop it past the keeper. At halftime it was 2 – 6 to Mellor and it seemed to be plain sailing.
However, the third quarter was a bit of a mess for Mellor. Maybe concentration slipped, maybe they thought this was going to be a walkover but Timperley pushed them hard and deserved a goal. This was followed by a fourth and a fifth and Mellor looked in danger of throwing things away. Luckily Drew took things in hand and it was his clever pass that set up Tom for his second goal with a good cut. The third quarter ended 5 – 8.
In the final quarter Mellor took back control of the game. The Timperley goalie made one run out of goal too many. The ever reliable Josh Haining picked it off and set up Sam who fed Tom in for a great goal as the goalie was arriving back in his crease. Sam then scored from another unselfish pass from Drew. Tom then scored from another great bit of gameplay from Drew to make it 5 - 11. Timperley managed a consolation goal and the game ended with Ben Tipping putting the ball in the net as the whistle was being blown. The goal was disallowed but the game had been won well.
One the best aspects of this victory was the Mellor defence. Josh Haining, Joe Kynaston, Ben Hodgson and Alex Chalmers (from the U12s) all played a disciplined game and moved the ball really well. Will made three saves but possibly could have stopped a couple of the long distance shots. It’s good to note that Mellor had no offsides against them. In particular Drew Bickerton was always careful to drop back into defence when one of the Mellor defenders set of on a run. Up front Ben Tipping won most of his face-offs which gave Mellor a great platform to score. All in all it was a fine team performance and Mellor are looking better for the stronger tests likely to await them.
Goals :
Drew Bickerton 1
Rufus Lancaster 1
Ben Tipping 1
Tom Brady 4
Sam Griffiths 3
Eddie Jenkins 1
Saves 3 Man of the match – Ben Tipping