This wasn’t the most thrilling encounter Mellor have had this season but the team played well enough to make it a pretty comfortable win. Heaton Mersey had beaten Mellor at U12 last year in the Flags Final so there was definitely a feeling of rivalry coming into this match, particularly from those players who came up from the U12s this season.

Heaton Mersey played a very patient possession game throughout the match but probably lacked a cutting edge up front. Mellor played in a similar way but had more attacking options going forward.

The game started well for Mellor with a quick solo goal from Drew Bickerton, a trademark low sidewinder that the keeper couldn’t deal with. Eddie Jenkins struck a post and Sam Griffiths scored from the re-bound. Then Tom Brady made a wonderful twisty turning run from behind the goal and scored with a cheeky low shot. Mellor were passing well and holding possession well and would have scored more had the Heaton Mersey defence not been so organised. At 3 goals down the visitors started to wake up and scored a good goal to make it 3-1 at the end of the quarter.

The second quarter got a bit stodgy. Heaton Mersey retained a lot of the possession without really looking like they could a do lot with it. Mellor seemed to lack ideas and the passing that had been so good in the first quarter started to let them down. Luckily Oli Plant and the busy Joey Bissell seemed up for a scrap and they gave Mellor some energy that was lacking in other areas. After a very dull patch of play Mellor suddenly came to life with Drew feeding Joey who cut in to score a well- deserved goal. 4-1 at the break.

The third quarter saw a sudden rush of goals. Drew popped in a lovely low drive from a tricky angle and then fed Eddie for Eddie’s first goal. Both goals came from winning the face-off and the importance of doing that was underlined when Heaton Mersey won the next face-off and scored directly from it. The visitors saw a small window of opportunity but this was slammed shut by another terrific goal from Tom Brady, from yet another assist by Drew. Late in the quarter Eddie’s shot flew up in the air and Ben Tipping was able to snatch it and calmly pop it in the net for 8-2

Despite the goals scored in the third quarter Mellor’s passing had got a little ragged and without the energy in attack of Drew and the feisty defensive work of Joey they might have suffered more in the fourth quarter. Luckily it seemed like Heaton Mersey had run out of ideas. They scored one last goal which came from a rebound after a very good save by Will Macdonald but they didn’t look like getting back into the match. Generally the Mellor defence had held firm and without a driving midfielder Heaton Mersey simply didn’t attempt enough shots. Drew scored the last goal from a nice feed from Sam and Heaton Mersey’s last attack was made by their keeper who went all the way up the pitch only to have his shot saved one-handed by Will. The game ended 9 – 3, Mellor had done a good job without being very inspired. The score certainly didn’t reflect the amount of possession Heaton Mersey had and if Mellor give away this amount of possession to better teams in the cup they’ll get punished.

GOALS :

Drew 3 Ben Tipping 1 Tom 2

Sam 1 Eddie 1 Joey 1

ASSISTS :

Drew 3 Sam 2 Eddie 2 Ben 1

Saves 3

Joint Man Of The Match – Joey Bissell for sheer effort and a great goal and Oli Plant for determination and linking the play.