U12s Stockport vs Timperley

Christmas Hangover

4th January 2020

After the over indulgence of the festive period, I think everyone was looking forward to this fixture. Who wants to sit around all day drinking, eating and playing Nintendo Switch?

It was time to put down the controllers and get back to some real sport (yes, I did win at Mario Kart against Tom)!

A slightly overcast and damp morning presented itself and Stockport had plenty of players raring to go.  As normal, the massed ranks of Stockport supporters filled the railway side of the pitch and it looked like we could really take this game to Timperley. The last fixture against them was a very competitive 13-13 draw on the AstroTurf back in October. Some of their larger players seemed to have moved on but physically the teams appeared to be relatively equal in stature and determination to play well.

I’m going to structure this blog slightly differently as the reality of the game didn’t equate to the optimism felt at the beginning of the game.

Q1

This was probably the best quarter of the whole match. There was good end-to-end action from the teams but the solid start from Stockport came to nothing unlike Timperley who took every chance that was presented to them and they soon moved into a 0-2 lead. Dan won his face-off and scored a fine individual goal to pull a goal back but Timperley converted their chances to take it to 1-4. Credit in this quarter has to be given to Henry, Dan and Ethan, as each lad played well, and earned themselves a goal to finish the quarter 4-4.

Q2/Q3

The game at this point seemed to get a bit bogged down. Very scrappy play crept in and there were periods within these two quarters when both sides were dominant. Stockport appeared to become disjointed and we sensed an air of frustration filtrate through the players and into the supporting crowd. The defence also seemed to get flustered at times and despite plenty of hard work by both sides, this period ended 7-9. It must be noted that Josh made some fine stops to prevent the gap opening up further.

Q4

Despite Stockport having a greater number of players, Timperley got control of the game and despite a lucky goal from Tom they eased to an 8-15 win.

Heads were slightly down at the final whistle and we have seen better play from the boys in the past. Maybe the ascendancy in form over the last few games lulled us into a false sense of dominance

Some of the basics were lacking but there was plenty of effort all round. The boys we spoke to echoed this and the team spirit remains strong. That is a real positive as we move towards our next fixture. Cheadle at home!

Well played Timperley who quietly went about their business and as mentioned earlier took advantage of any attacking opportunities that came their way.

School report states ‘could do better, but not a bad watch nonetheless’.