Belief. Resilience. Skill. Determination. You’ll need to excel in all these qualities to beat this Cheadle U12s side, and I’m afraid the Mellor boys just didn’t have enough of any of these factors as, truth be told, we were soundly beaten by a good lacrosse side.

We started reasonably well, ever reliable Charlie picking up a groundball to score, Cheadle then equalised before Sammy put us ahead following a solo run. Cheadle got another back and it was all square after the second quarter. So far, so good, plenty of possession and the prospect of a tight game.

Into Q2, Cheadle scored first but Sammy got another back to make it 3 all. Then the wheels fell off.....Cheadle got into their stride and with some clever passing, making full use of the pitch, passing behind the goal and sneaking into good positions they started to tear our defence to shreds. We conceded another four in the quarter, and you could see the belief and fight drain out of the boys. Heads were down.

The start to Q3 was just as bad as Cheadle got another two, and we’d conceded six on the run without reply. At 9 - 3 down and the best part of 25 mins to play it was looking grim. Credit to Cheadle though, they were playing good lacrosse and had pinpointed our weaknesses, but we weren’t helping ourselves. Looking for positives, it could have got worse, we picked ourselves up and started to compete, although one wonders if Cheadle stepped off the gas somewhat. Sammy got another, lifting spirits, but Cheadle scored again, before Sammy, who was having his best game for sometime, got his fourth. 10 - 5 down after Q3.

Both teams went the the motions in the last 15 mins, Cheadle knew they’d won the game and we didn’t have the fight. Cheadle got two more and we replied with one, as Sammy fed Josh and the final score was 12 - 6.

Time to lick our wounds and take stock. We’re in the semis - having finished second in the group, and it’ll either be Timperley or Heaton Mersey at home. But let’s not get carried away, either will be a tough game as both teams have improved significantly post Christmas. We will need to be at our best to get to the flags final. And if we get there it’ll most likely be Cheadle again. We are good enough and Cheadle are definitely beatable, and perhaps they’ve played their final already (remember England in the Rugby World Cup), but we will need... Belief. Resilience. Skill. Determination. And in abundance.