U12A 11-6 Brooklands

Playing Brooklands is never easy and we approached this game in a very focussed manner. We arrived at Brooklands soon after dawn (literally, for a 9am face), took to the pitch as if we owned it and warmed up like a real team – the opposition couldn’t take their eyes off us, while we ignored them totally.

The game was even for the first quarter with Timperley taking a lead, falling behind, then equalising to get to 2-2. We were a less nervous team in the second quarter and in spite of Brooklands putting their first choice U12 goalie onto the pitch, we stretched to a 5-3 half time lead. The third quarter saw more improvement as the Timperley defence started to press more, the attack started to move more, while the midfield kept it aggressive all over the pitch. 8-4 at three quarter time and 15 minutes to go. The fourth quarter was more of the same, with Timperley scoring 3 goals, before conceding 2 in the final 2 minutes to make it 11-6 at the end.

Brooklands have now lost three games this season, but they will always raise their game for Timperley. However, they managed well under half the number of shots that we did - both goalies made good saves, but our superior shot count really showed how much we dominated the game and we were never in danger of losing. We created some really good chances, and scored some lovely assisted goals. Towards the end of the game we showed our experience by excellent retention of the ball and by not rushing to goal all the time.

Matthew Stewart has discovered that he enjoys spending Saturday mornings shouting at his defence, and marshalled Sam Harris, Alex Ball and Patrick Sugden well. This was their sternest test of the season and they came up with the goods. Captain Oli Loveland led the midfield superbly with 5 goals. Dan Walker scored his first goal for the A team, while Oliver Crosby centred well, and showed great awareness and fight all game. James Prickett and Tom Cox make up the rest of the midfield legs and are a real part of the strength we show here. Finally, the attack was led by Ed Loveland (3 goals), ably assisted by Joe Hunn (2 goals) and Sam Hirst.

Coming through a tough game is good for this group of boys, as they haven’t been pushed often enough this season. It is now evident there are certain points in our play that need working on, and we can now address these in training over the coming weeks. We haven’t won anything yet, but this result, against a club that has consistently competed for and won U12 trophies over the last few years, gives us great optimism for the rest of the season.