Timperley 5-4 Brooklands

Today Timperley U16 won the Junior & Schools Cup for the first time since 2002, with a gutsy performance against local rivals Brooklands. In my own mind we were probably slight favourites for the game, but I always expected a defensively orientated match to unfold, and that’s exactly how it happened.

Both teams were nervous at the start as Brooklands conceded a number of early penalties, while Timperley threw the ball away too often. We were unable to get things moving offensively, until after around 10 minutes of play Oli Loveland slotted one home from a feed from Ben Williamson. The second quarter opened with Timperley scoring two more, the first an individual low to high finish into the top corner by Oli Loveland, the second when Jake Bradford finished off an end to end fast break. 3-0 to Timperley and we were relaxing into the game. It’s never that easy though, and a defensive lapse, plus a man down allowed Brooklands to score two goals before half time to set the nerves jangling again.

As expected the defences and goalkeepers were dominating the game. Timperley’s defensive pressing game was stifling Brooklands and giving them very little to work with, whilst Brooklands were keeping us out with both their goalkeepers making some big saves.

The third quarter saw Timperley start to play better, we were creating chances and playing some decent lacrosse. Chances came for Adam Kinghorn, Tom Cox and Ben Williamson, before TJ Burgess wriggled free from the attention of three defenders to score the fourth. Brooklands had a goal disallowed for a crease infringement and then TJ Burgess added a fifth with 6 seconds left in the quarter. 5-3 with 15 minutes to go, and some serious words from the coach. It was surely ours to win now? Just a nice quiet last quarter and we’d be there…….

What happened in the fourth quarter was that the game seemed to implode as the desperation of both teams took over. Brooklands scored a fourth, and were chasing the equalising goal, whilst the Timperley players were trying to hold what they had but also fancied a sixth goal. So it was end to end stuff for the final ten minutes. Cameron Jamie hit the post, Matt Allen had a shot off the goalie’s helmet, we blew two possessions on stall warnings, had three poles on the face off to try to get the ball, a man down for a mouthguard infringement, Matthew Stewart made a flying save, Patrick Sugden cleared off the line…..it was all going on at 100mph. The final 20 seconds were about the longest of the day as the ball was in and around our goal with no-one able to do anything decisive. Finally, the whistle went to the delight and relief of half the crowd and players, and it was over.

These things do not come easy and although we all know it wasn’t our most fluent performance of the season by a long way, it was a cup final and I’ll take winning ugly every time. Every one of the 14 players today made a difference, they dug in and did what was required of them to win the game. It was all about the result and getting our club’s name on the trophy.

These lads know how well they can play, and we won’t worry that today was not the showcase it could have been. We’ve played 25 games this season, winning 22 and drawing 1. We’ve beaten all the top teams since Christmas and thoroughly deserve to be where we are now. Top of the pile at U16.

Quarter scores: 1-0, 3-2, 5-3, 5-4
Goals/(Assists): Loveland 2(1), Burgess 2, Bradford 1, Williamson (1)
Saves: Stewart 8 (from 12 shots on target)

The victorious team was (left to right):
Tom Cox, Joe Hunn, Cameron Jamie, Pat Sugden, Dan Walker, Ben Williamson, Oli Loveland, Matt Allen, TJ Burgess, Matthew Stewart, Sam Harris, Jake Bradford, Sam Hirst, Adam Kinghorn, Seb Phillips.