Is it possible to start one of these match reports without a comment on the weather? Doubt it. We have been subjected to rain along with soggy pitches for months. Yet on Saturday, we were were blessed with the bluest of skies and a perfectly dry pitch with our junior boys playing Brooklands at home.

This season, Patrick Hill has come out of goal whilst Jude Taylor has stepped up to the mark. It’s pretty terrifying watching someone come hurling towards you ready to smash the ball into the back of the net yet nothing seems to phase Jude who defended each goal with vigour and at no point did he look even slightly concerned that he would be on the receiving end of an attempted goal! Kudos Jude.

We then have his brother, Gabe Taylor, who has really come out of his ‘lacrosse shell’ – he just dominated the pitch in the first half picking the ball up from the face off before driving past three of his opponents and slotting the ball in the bottom left of the goal.  He was ably assisted in the mid-field by Chris Meadows and Harrison Denton who identified prime positions allowing them to take possession of the ball.

Joseph Roladan truly deserved his ‘Man of the Match’ award for setting up some beautiful assists and remaining alert allowing him to monopolise on the ground balls which meant that his opponents were left scratching their heads wondering when and how he had acted so fast. Joseph is quickly developing into one of Liverpool’s most agile players.

Harry Marshall and Patrick Hill, demonstrated some forceful drives which left the Brooklands coach exclaiming ‘just don’t let that big guy through‘ – I’m not sure who he was referring to at the time but our boys showed their opponents that they are no longer playing as individuals on a pitch but as a united team which made for some incredible viewing from the side line.

In Defence, we had a bit of a mix up with Reuben Denton astutely staying goal side of his player at all times and soldiering on despite being winded allowing Matthew Meadows and Rafael to make some accurate interceptions even if they then got shoved off the pitch as they were making progress along the side line. The best part of course is to see Matthew smiling at you through his helmet even after some rather crazy tackling but his hard work paid off allowing Rafael to dodge past a number of defenders before putting the goal in the top corner.

Last but not least are two players who consistently demonstrate a great lacrosse IQ with Chris Wood putting in sharp and concise checks before taking possession and passing to Christian Maden who delivered some strong shots in the back of the net!

Whilst the boys had a great game and truly deserved the 9-4 win, the best bit was watching them take accountability for their play – particularly Harry and Chris Wood who took the initiative to co-ordinate their team. Keep up the excellent work, boys.

Sunday 28 February

On Sunday, Harry, Patrick, Reuben, Harrison, Rafael, Gabe, Christian and Chris Wood were selected to represent the boys in the U12 tournament at Tournament where they had some great play.

Having trained hard over the summer, our junior girls’ squad travelled fifty miles to Mellor for their first friendly fixture of the season.

There were a few last minute drop outs from both teams which meant that Chris Wood and Jude Taylor, who had turned up to cheer the girls along, ended up sharing the role of goal keeper appeasing Mellor who also had a boy in goal.

Liverpool seemed nervous to start with conceding a couple of goals from Mellor but Phoebe Taylor, who captained the team, then decided to dominate the centre draws whilst Mellor were unable to keep up with Beth Mulligan who transitioned rapidly from midfield into attack. In the second quarter, Eve Turner took centre position before driving down the pitch scoring goal after goal at which point the referees felt the need to introduce the rule of ‘at least one pass from the centre draw before goals could be scored’ – not that that impacted on Eve’s incredible goal count!

Mellor gave a good performance and had speed on their side however Scarlett Smith was a force to be reckoned with ensuring her opponent constantly lost possession of the ball. In the second quarter, Emily Turner led the defence unit and fought relentlessly scooping up nearly every ground ball before clearing it out to Beth along the side line resulting in one of the best assists and goals of the game! Our youngest player, Olivia Wood, assisted in defence and by the end of the third quarter ran alongside the attack in an effort to steer them off course.

As the third quarter concluded, Liverpool found they were down by three goals perhaps because I kept forgetting about the offside rule! A quick team talk realigned our focus on the importance of being positive and fighting for every single ball…. and that is exactly what they did!

Chris delivered strong clears astutely identifying Emily Kidd for her optimum positioning and by the final quarter Emily excelled in attack and despite being sandwiched by Mellor’s defence, she dodged past them by maintaining a strong momentum coupled with some excellent and undefeatable cradling all of which allowed, Phoebe, Emily Turner and Jude to deliver some powerful goals resulting in an 11-10 win to our girls!

I have awarded the ‘Most Valuable Player’ award to Emily Kidd who showed calm and determination in the face of pressure from some of Mellor’s strongest players – well done Emily!

I should also give our joint goal keeper, Chris and Jude, a nod for the ‘goal off’ antics that they initiated which ensured that no one was ever really safe whilst they adopted a risky strategy running wobbling out of goal to the other end of the pitch.

Finally, thank you to all the parents (including Mrs Mir) for being beacons of positivity which makes such a difference at every level of lacrosse.