Men's 1st Team v Mellor

Timperley's recent results with Brooklands and Heaton Mersey, despite walking away without any points, have really been games that on another day could have seen them take all the points, giving the team confidence and assurance that they can compete with the best in this league.

A 2 goal deficit to Brooklands and a 1 goal deficit to Heaton Mersey are promising results. Consequently, there was a real sense of belief going into Saturday's fixture against Mellor, who have been seeing similar results. Despite conceding the first goal of the game, Timperley's confidence shone through in the early stages of the game. A brilliant dodge by Ewan Ginger drew a crease slide leaving Michael Armstrong open, Ginger saw the feed, made it and Armstrong opened the scoring for the Blues. The momentum built from here, 2 goals from TJ Burgess and another from Greg Sandy gave Timperley a healthy lead. Massive credit goes to James Bates for his part in winning a large percentage of the face-offs in this first quarter. Mellor snatched another goal before the whistle blew wrapping up the quarter at 4-2.

The second quarter was fast-paced and aggressive. Recognising the danger caused by Bates winning face-off after face-off, Mellor started to get more physical and fiery. The reaction from Timperley was good, ground ball battles were fought hard but fought fairly. The goals kept coming with Jack Brook, Will Greaves and Greg Sandy all adding to Timperley's tally. Despite these positives for the Blues, it was Mellor who took the share of the goals from the second quarter. Timperley defended passionately and Tim Blower made a handful of brilliant saves, but Mellor managed an impressive 6 goals taking the half time score to 7-8 to the visiting team.

By the third quarter, the pitch was deteriorating and Mellor had the momentum. They took advantage of the situation. Timperley refused to roll over, continuing to fight hard for every ground ball, and standing firm in defence. The hard work was not rewarded and the goals seemed to dry up. Mellor fired 3 past Timperley over the quarter. An impressive solo goal from James Bates in which he won the face-off and charged downfield and finished gave Timperley a lifeline in an otherwise challenging quarter. The penalty count was starting to stack up and mostly in Mellor's favour. By the end of the third quarter, Timperley had amassed 5 ½ minutes of penalties compared to just 2 minutes for Mellor. The quarter ended with Mellor leading 8-11.

The final quarter saw Mellor continue to apply pressure, scoring the first goal to open up a 4 goal gap. A further 2 ½ minutes of penalties for Timperley and a bad injury to Ollie Lee who had been playing fantastically all game made it an uphill battle for the home side. The response was phenomenal from the Blues. Mike Smith and midfielders showed brilliant commitment, fighting hard to support on face-offs, the attack regained control and the defence was simply brilliant. Jack Brook, TJ Burgess and Will Greaves (2) all found the back of the net, to bring the score level at 12-12. With very little time left in the game, Mellor managed to scrape a goal. The final score was 12-13 to Mellor. The game was brilliantly contended by both teams and once again, putting the result to one side, the performance from Timperley was fantastic and inspires huge confidence that we can go on to beat some of these top teams in a very competitive league.

Special mention to Ewan Ginger for an impressive showing in his debut game for the 1st Team. His early assist got the team off the mark. Also James Bates won an impressive number of face-offs and ground balls through the day, he was undeniably Man of the Match which was lovely to see on the week of his 30th birthday.

Goals came from:
TJ Burgess - 3
Will Greaves - 3
Jack Brook - 2
Greg Sandy - 2
Michael Armstrong - 1
James Bates - 1

A good spread of goal scorers again showing what a brilliant team effort it was.