This was Mellor’s best game of the season against tough opponents who had already beaten them in the league a couple of months ago. Mellor knew they were in for a battle right from the face-off when Cheadle cruised through a startled Mellor defence and scored easily. However, the powerful Mellor midfield kept the visitors at bay and a ding dong first quarter ended as a respectable 3-3. In the second quarter Mellor started to pull ahead. Dan Jones started to boss things in the middle and Ben Mochan had a typically unselfish game up front, scoring at the end of a couple of neat moves. Cheadle were good but Mellor were better and they just shaded the first half going in 8-6 ahead. The third quarter saw Mellor really pile on the pressure and Cheadle started to wilt. The best bit of news for Mellor though was how well the defence were holding up. They worked together as a unit and had more aggression than we have seen in previous games this season. Having Will Macdonald back in goal helped as well. He made a series of good saves from the increasingly frustrated Cheadle forwards. The third quarter ended at a comfortable 12-6. Cheadle came at Mellor in the final quarter and piled on the pressure in an attempt to rack up the goals. They pulled back to 12-9 but the gap was too great. Mellor had got a little sloppy with a few unnecessary sendings-off and it needed a timeout for the coaches to remind them that they just had to keep control of the ball to win the game. It seemed to work. Mellor tightened up and managed a couple more goals to win the match convincingly 14-9. They looked like a team and operated as a team today and they will be very tough opponents for whoever they get in the Flags Final.

Well done Mellor!
Man of the match – Dan Jones