The second round of the cup mini league saw Mellor face Stockport, away from home on a lovely cold crisp morning perfect for lax.

The morning didn’t start well with coach Howie locking himself out his garage and turning up late. How many press ups for that John ? That meant Stu and Sim took charge for the first few minutes, possibly explaining why we conceded the first goal (!) so quickly as Stockport’s huge #18 opened the scoring. Mellor got one back quickly though nice assist from Sammy to Dyl before Stockport got another. Dyl scores for Mellor again following a pass from his brother Charlie, to make it 2 2 after the first quarter. We’d had plenty of possession and shots, but some poor shooting and excellent saves from the Stockport keeper had kept us to only two. Furthermore there was something up with Charlie’s stick, and our most prolific scorer and talisman was uncharacteristically struggling in front of net.

We conceded first in the second quarter, again as there tall #18, who wouldn’t go amiss on a senior side, launched a thunderbolt from distance. #6 got another and we were two behind and flagging. Plenty of shots and possession but just not making it count, Charlie swapping sticks not helping, and the Stockport keeper having a stormer, no doubt the best we’ve faced this year. Sammy pulled one back and we were 4 - 3 down at half time. The boys were not playing well, and we knew they were in a real fight to win this one.

Third quarter and we continued to be stuck in second gear. Charlie finally found the net despite stick problems and we were back to all square, before their #18 got his third of the game and stockport were leading again. Josh then burst through using his substantial pace and laid it off to Dyl to make it 5 all going into the last quarter.

At this point we lost Dyl to cross country and omens for the last quarter weren’t good. If truth be told we were underperforming, and Stockport were playing well, with their keeper easily man of the match so far. However how wrong we were! What came next what a superb last quarter, possibly the best they’ve played all season, with every single Mellor boy giving their all. Sammy was moved to attack, moving into Dyl’s position, and scored the next two goals, one a solo effort and the other with an assist from Noah. Seb O then went on an inspired run, with a great finish and with Leo feeding Charlie we had scored four unanswered goals in Q4 without Stockport having a sniff. It was particularly pleasing to see hard the boys fought to win back possession.

After a very physical previous game it was also nice to see the game being played in a hard but fair manner, with few infringements from either side. Great game to watch, and although it took us a while to get motoring, some excellent lax played at the end.