This was a sluggish game that got very bogged down in the soft pitch at Brabyn’s Park. Mellor were the best team but both teams looked a little cold and sleepy. In the end the game was a rather dour tussle with mistakes on both sides, enlivened with a few good goals.
Mellor took the lead quickly and initially looked very positive going forward. Sam Griffiths playing up from the U14s looked very energetic on the left wing and his confident stick work kept a lot of moves going. Goals by Dan Jones and Josh Poke gave Mellor a three goal cushion by the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter the visitors started to pull their game together and as the drizzle descended Mellor’s defence started to freeze at times. Ben Tipping and Josh Pink increased the lead to 5-0 but then WMG notched up three goals and started to look like they were going to take hold of the game. Luckily Mellor pulled themselves together and popped three goals in by halftime to make it 8-3.
Maybe it was tired legs – Mellor had no substitutes – but something slowed down in the engine room in the second half. Only bright performances from Drew Bickerton and Sam Griffiths kept the forward momentum. WMG managed another three goals and, when they attacked, Mellor looked dangerous too. However the team ethos seemed to be ditched in favour of individual runs and too often Mellor’s midfield just weren’t looking for the pass. Despite that they managed another 4 goals to end the third quarter 12-6. The final quarter was really more of the same. WMG scored another three but Mellor always had the edge and Drew Bickerton scored a couple of very neat goals at the end of good passing moves – proving how fluid Mellor can be when they pass as a team. Sam Griffiths was unlucky to have a couple of misses. In defence Mellor were poor today and Will was kept busier than perhaps he should have been in goal. The final score was 15-9. It was played in a good spirit but everyone looked cold and damp and it has to go down as one of Mellor’s more forgettable matches.
Man of the match – Sam Griffiths for great handling, great energy and not being daunted playing at U16 level.
GOALS – Dan Jones 2, Josh Poke 3, Josh Pink 3, Drew Bickerton 3, Ben Tipping 4
SAVES - 9