Men's 1st Team v Brooklands

Saturday's game was always going to be a rough game. Brooklands are a good, well-organised team and the local rivalry between the two clubs only adds to the occasion.

Brooklands came well prepared and started the game strong. Winning a large proportion of the face-offs and enjoying long, controlled spells of possession, they managed to score 4 goals in the opening quarter. Timperley's defence fought brilliantly, working as a unit to keep the scoring to a minimum but the team suffered from a lack of patience and cohesion. TJ Burgess managed to find 1 goal to give the hosts a small boost.

The second quarter wasn't very different from the first. A frustrated Timperley failed to show any quality in possession, being wasteful with the ball for the duration of the quarter. The defence once again fought hard and we saw some fantastic individual performances from Josh Blower, Mike Smith, Calum Dalgleish and Adam Henbury. James Bates also put in a very strong defensive display, regularly showing his quality and strength, forcing Brooklands players to work hard to find a way through. Despite the hard work and fight, Brooklands lengthy possessions eventually broke through leading to them adding a further goals to their tally, bringing the half time score to 8-1.

Timperley needed to turn things around quickly if they were going to take anything away from the game. The first possession of the half, they looked like a different team; passing the ball quickly, moving as a unit, dodging with purpose. The move ended with Greg Sandy beating his man from X and slotting the ball past the goalkeeper. From here, the momentum of the game started to swing. Mike Smith and James Bates continued to graft hard on face offs and the attack started to show the control and skill that they're capable off. Michael Armstrong quickly added to the scoring helping to build the momentum. From here, Timperley really started to control play, Goals from TJ Burgess and Jack Brook helped to bring the score up to 10-6 going into the final quarter. A real highlight of the quarter was a brilliant fast break in which Tim Blower launched an accurate pass upfield to James Bates who's marauding run allowed him to fire the ball past the goalkeeper.

Timperleys carried this form into the final quarter, a couple of big outside shots from Ed Loveland and Greg Sandy bought the scoreline closer, and clinic inside finishing from Jack Brook and Will Greaves bought the teams score up to 10. Despite a brilliant defensive performance and some great one on one saves from Tim Blower, Brooklands also managed to add to their tally taking the final score to 10-12 in favour of the visitors, Brooklands.

It was a tough result for Timperley but the second half was a vast improvement. Huge credit to the defensive players who worked hard right the way through.

Goal scorers:

Jack Brook - 2
Greg Sandy - 2
TJ Burgess - 2
Michael Armstrong - 1
Will Greaves - 1
Ed Loveland - 1
James Bates - 1