The last game of 2018 was at home, in theory vs a combined Poynton / Rochdale side, which in the end turned out to be made up of Poynton players only. The game nearly didn’t go ahead due to the lack of a referee, so thanks to Nick Donovan for standing in at the last minute, who was rewarded with a bottle of red for his efforts.

Mellor fielded 15 players, a great turnout given the time of the year and awful weather, although were missing Finn and Miles P, two of the more experienced boys. This gave John a chance to experiment with a bit more with the younger players and it was great to see Cam and Josh on the pitch, free from football commitments. It can only be time surely before they give up the beautiful game for the mud of Mellor lax !

Mellor started well with Cam scoring the first, following a nice pass from James K, who was clearly buoyed from being able to keep his legs dry with with some proper kit on this occasion ! Another assist from ‘dry legs’ shortly after the first set up Sammy to make it 2 - 0. John and Sim on the sideline noted that James was on fire, and so it came to pass, and he went on to become man of the match! Charlie scored two more and the Mellor boys were up 4 - 0 at the end of Q1.

Poynton started the second quarter well but struggled to break through a determined defence of Robbie, Ollie and James S, along with some good saves from Frederick, although in truth he was rarely troubled. The game became a little more physical, with sin bins from both sides and Mellor controlled most of the possession, probing the Poynton defence. Eventually Mellor broke through again with another goal from Cam, assisted by Charlie, then Ellis, with an assist from James K, who got on the scoresheet again with another assist from Charlie. 7 - 0 at half time.

Into the second half, Mellor in possession for long periods, good strong defence from Poynton and numerous sin bins, with a few bumps along the way for various players. A trademark barnstormer of a run from Robbie to set up Sammy, then solo goal from Eddie and Jacob’s first, with an assist from Theo, meant Mellor scored three in the quarter. Poynton at last got on the scoresheet, with a strong run from the number 16 going straight through the Mellor defence. 10 - 1 after three quarters.

The pattern continued into Q4. ‘Dry legs’ got another, then another solo goal from Eddie and a nice combination between Sammy and Ellis made it 13 - 1 at full time. Well done to Seb for his determination, he got knocked down then got up again....they ain’t ever gonna keep him down and he could have done with a whiskey drink at the end of the game!

A good win for Mellor, perhaps tougher than they thought it might be and without some of the fluidity in passing compared to last week vs Stockport. Still the conditions were awful and Poynton were strong in defence, so overall a good result. James K man of the match. 12 out of 13 wins so far this season and really coming together as a team.