The boys assembled at the bottom of the ground for a change, and with a few of the older boys missing, plenty of effort would required from the squad of 12 on what is the club’s largest pitch. After two away friendlies we were meeting Timperley for the third time, and the first on grass, and our hopes of victory were high. In the absence of the older lads it time for the younger boys to step up! Game on !

Q1 - Over the past couple of games we’d started slowly and ended well, and it was great to see that this time we started quickly, taking an Immediate, though slightly fortuitous lead, as a pass from Charlie took a deflection of a defender’s head and into the net. No luck needed for the next few goals though as Charlie and Miles both scored from solo efforts, then ‘king of the assists’ Miles set up Leo and we were 4 - 0 up. Nice shutout from the defence in the first quarter with Noah, relatively new to goalkeeping, pulling off a couple of good saves. Well done Noah!

Q2 - Timperley came back into the game in the second quarter, scoring first before Miles got another following a solo run. Timp got one back and we were 5 - 2. We’d had plenty of possession but a combination of poor finishing and good saves from the Timp keeper kept them in the game, but you couldn’t help feeling that the Mellor lead should have been much greater.

Q3 - Mellor took control of the game again with Miles setting up Charlie to score, then miles provided another assist to Leo for his second and there was clear daylight between the two teams as we went 7 - 2 up. Some good defence and nice work by Noah meant it was another shutout and the boys were looking extremely comfortable, despite at this point giving Timperley free clears.

Q4 - Charlie got another solo goal and we were 8 - 2 up and truth be told, cruising to what should have been a double digit victory. Or that’s what we thought! For whatever reason, perhaps because the boys could see the magnitude of the lead on the scoreboard (for once!) they just seemed to turn off for the last 10 minutes. Frustratingly, having kept Timp to 2 goals for 50 mins, we then proceeded to concede five in the last ten, due to some good play from Timp and poor defending from Mellor. It wasn’t all one way though as we got another two, both from the terrier, Daniel R, who is usually at football on a Saturday, with nice assists from Sammy and Charlie. So 10 -7 to Mellor at full time.

Credit to Timperley for the Q4 comeback but the boys should have been out of sight by then, and it felt a bit flat in the last 15 minutes. Still, job done and we’ll be playing Cheadle next week to determine who tops the Group.