Brooklands back to winning ways

BROOKLANDS were again in action this weekend at Georges Road against Wilmslow in one of the few fixtures that survived the weather.

Wilmslow were looking at getting back to winning ways after the surprise defeat to Sheffield Steelers last week and came out of the blocks hard.

Putting immense pressure on the Brooklands defence, they went into an early 4-1 quarter lead.

The Brooklands offence were for once misfiring against a multi-national Wilmslow defence. However, this Brooklands team has the heart for a fight and refused to lie down, bringing the scores back to level at half time 4-4. The offence of Sliter, Finney and Simpson began to gel, ably assisted by the Crowley brothers, Nick and Sean, and this paid dividends as they began to wear down the Wilmslow defence.

Alan Stones in the face off and James Bates and Josh Snell on the wings were once again bringing the fight to an over-physical Wilmslow team and this translated to the defence who kept the Wilmslow offence to few opportunities.

Ellston, Jordan and Baxter were again making life difficult for the Wilmslow attack men and when the few opportunities did present themselves, veteran keeper John Marr was on hand to keep them out.

Brooklands got on top and further goals from Sliter, Crowley and Simpson opened up a four-goal lead, 8-4 with only a couple of minutes left in the third quarter.

But they did not help themselves by trying to be too adventurous in attack and then giving away silly fouls in the offensive area of the field to present Wilmslow man up opportunities to score.

Wilmslow capitalized on this situation by scoring two quick goals to bring them to within two at the end of the third quarter, 8-6.

Brooklands knew they were in a game as big hits were being dished out all over the field and this pressure again led to a Wilmslow goal from a man up play.

The next goal would be crucial, and it was to be Brooklands who got it with captain Simpson on hand to capitalize on the opportunity.

Wilmslow managed to pull one goal back with the last action of the game to bring the final score to 9-8, a big win for Brooklands who now move up to tied fourth in the Premiership table.

The B team took another step towards consolidating a top six position, to qualify for league lacrosse after Christmas, with a convincing 10-1 home victory over Stockport C.

The muddy conditions underfoot made for a dour game and the attack became literally bogged down, the only result of a first quarter's domination of possession being a Dave Wheeldon goal from a feed by Liam Griffiths.

The straight defence of Ben Dexter, Adam Laws and Kevin Richardson, interspersed with John Taylor and Dave Lindsey performed admirably against the Stockport attack and reduced them to so much ineffectiveness that they never looked likely to score.

The few breaches of this defence were nonchalantly dealt with by Sam Spurrell, in goal, whose comfortable saves added to Stockport's frustration.

The B pulled further ahead in the second quarter, a strong run from Alex Sieradski being rewarded with a goal, and strikes from Keith Robson and Kevin Richardson, finishing off the fast break he had started from defence, made the score 4-0 at half time.

The third quarter saw much of the same. A goal from Alex Sieradski, from a feed from Alex Ball and two vintage efforts from the Keith Robson-Ian Buckland combination made the score 7-0 at three-quarter time.

At this stage Stockport were waving the white flag and requested a 15 minute last quarter as they were apparently fed up and wanted to go home.

Their woes were complete when straight from the centre Dave Lindsey scooped up the ball and ran unopposed to score with a bounce shot to the keeper's right.

Stockport, however, rallied and scored when Adam Laws gave his man too much space to cut across goal and his shot into the bottom corner gave Sam Spurrell no chance.

But further goals from Ian Buckland and Keith Robson restored the balance and the B ran out worthy winners.

After a one-sided encounter against Stops in last week's fixture, the clash with Cheadle always promised to be a full-blooded affair and didn't disappoint.

Brooklands took an early lead through a well-taken goal from Kyle Sawyer but two failed clearances allowed Cheadle to gain the initiative.

Clearing problems together with penalties continued to hamper Brooklands from establishing a rhythm in the match and allowed Cheadle to dominate for long periods of the game.

However a spirited fight back saw Brooklands claw ahead 9-8 with the game time running down.

A late Cheadle goal followed by a Brooklands penalty meant a fraught finale to the match with the defence performing well to snuff out any Cheadle threat and allowing the attack one last chance at the Cheadle goal which didn't bear fruit.

A last quarter onslaught of the Mellor goal saw Brooklands under 16s claw back a three-goal deficit to tie a gripping home encounter 9-9.

Brooklands hit the ground running, scoring a well-worked fast break goal off the opening face.

Constant offence on the Mellor goal heaped the pressure on the Mellor goalkeeper who was forced to make a string of good saves.

Mellor soon got into the game, however, with some strong plays from their attack eventually converting into a points advantage.

Poor finishing in the third quarter saw Brooklands fail to take advantage of their offensive chances while Mellor's more clinical approach continued to hand them the initiative in this gripping encounter.

The constant pressure on their goal eventually reaped rewards for Brooklands with hard bounced shots finally answering the question of how to beat the Mellor goalie's good vein of form.

Brooklands under 14s made it eight wins in a row after a convincing win at Heaton Mersey, 16-3.

Wain led all scorers with four goals and four assists and won 100 per cent of his face off attempts.

Sam Dexter scored five and assisted one while also making occasional forages into the midfield. Ryan Sweetman added four goals and two assists, while Liam Wilkinson chipped in one.

Tom Harrison showed why he has spent most of his year in midfield by scoring two on numerous attempts.