U12 win 6 a side tournament

This is what it is all about. Playing lacrosse and winning a trophy. Ultimately the day ended as I had hoped, with Timperley taking home the cup, but I never thought that it would prove as dramatic as it did for players and parents alike.
In the round robin format, a lot depends on the draw, and we got a favourable one, with only Cheadle (last year's winners) looking a threat. We breezed through our opening two games, winning 13-0 against Mersey Guild B, and then Wacs 12-1. The whole afternoon changed with the Cheadle game as we struggled with their direct tactics and eventually went down 2-3. Chins were down, the boys were moaning about the ref, which in reality was good to see because it showed they cared; from this moment on, the team seemed to gel as they realised they were going to have to fight for this cup.
The fourth game was against an unbeaten Mersey Guild A, and we had to win, or it was the early bus home. We came through in style to record a comprehensive 12-1 win. Bring on the semi final draw……….. which paired us with Cheadle. We were going to have to win it the hard way.
The game was as we expected but our tactics were better and we coped with Cheadle’s long game. We were never ahead, but never more than a goal behind, and we were playing some really good lacrosse, whilst not being hurt too badly by the big kids on the opposition. Full time came, with the score at 3-3. It was a golden goal to settle the game – first to score wins - no pressure then………
This led to what was for me the most memorable and important moment of the afternoon. We won the face and after a bit of scrapping, put together a great four man passing move that ended with Oli Loveland coolly slotting the ball home for his hat-trick, the golden goal and a sprint half the length of the pitch to celebrate with his team mates. I was leaping around and so were half the spectators - we’d won it 4-3 to reach the final against Rochdale.
Rochdale had one really big player and we played him as best we could. Unfortunately we’d not been tipped off about their other top player who would go on to score 5 goals in the final. However, it didn’t matter……….
This was another game where we were never ahead until the end, but again we held it together and were never more than one behind. To counter the two good players Rochdale had, our team played some excellent lacrosse, slugging it out goal for goal, only losing its head once with about two minutes to go where the long ball reared its ugly head. We got over this mini crisis and then took it to Rochdale from 5-6 down to score two in the final 90 seconds to be 7-6 up. Our ball on our back line with 20 seconds to go and we killed some time, before a final assault from the big kid was repelled, and we’d done it, winning 7-6 in a brilliant final.

Every one of the boys played their part today [in the photo (back) Matthew Stewart, James Prickett, Sam Harris, Oli Loveland, (front) Tom Cox ,Oliver Crosby, Ed Loveland, Will Callaghan]. They became a real team over the course of the afternoon and ended up really battling for each other to achieve the victory for themselves and the club. There are a lot of proud parents, coaches and managers in Timperley tonight.