I really can’t remember the last time I watched Mellor play with five substitutes – and certainly not since the early U12s days. But if I was to be honest, I’m not sure the regular swapping of players in either defence or attack helped today.

The first quarter saw Stockport take a clear lead (6-3)with some good shooting aided by loose defending from MC. The second quarter was tied (2 goals each), with the MC defence a lot tighter and the team enjoyed some good possession.

There must have been a pretty inspiring half-time team talk from the coaches, as the boys were really fast out of the blocks. We started to win more of our share of face-offs, as Miles and Alex used their skill and strength to roll-over the opposition. Louis, now out of goal, made his presence felt by putting in some solid body-checks to one of their key danger-men – and we scored three great goals in less than five minutes to pull the score back to 7-8. There was great movement by the forwards and middies and MC played some brilliant lacrosse. Elliot lined em up and the forwards (Jon in particular) popped them in !

And then it all went wrong ….. again, some great shooting by Stockport and they scored five quick goals before the end of the quarter (8-13).

The final quarter was a similar story, MC enjoyed good possession and scored two goals but Stockport’s shooting was clinical. Final score 10-17.

Last week’s 7-3 win over Sheffield did not reflect the closeness of the game and the same can be said for this week’s match with Stockport. A close game, and the two teams were probably only separated by some really good shooting from two of Stockport’s Metros players and a lack of a dedicated goalie for MC. Also, MC gave the ball away cheaply - far too often. To quote Johan Cruyff (the great Dutch footballer and Barcelona Manager to you youngsters) … “if you’ve got the ball the opposition can’t score”.

But that said, MC scored ten goals against a good side with a well-drilled defence; and many of them were absolute scorchers. Goals by Elliot, Cameron, Josh, Miles, Joe, Alex and Jonathan.

Timperley away next Saturday and they’d better watch out