Cup opener for the Senior 2nds

We suffered the misfortune of being one of the two of thirty-two MABL teams to need to qualify for the first round of the cup! In some ways it was a blessing though because it gave us another opportunity to get up to speed before the season starts proper after we made a promising start with our narrow victory over UCLAN the week before in a friendly. It was also a welcome chance to again lock horns with a Tameside team that we played three times last season. All successfully, but all very tight and competitive.

In the event, this was a very different looking Tameside 2. A handful of their players remained, but mainly now in bench roles and they were young, big, athletic and hungry to make a statement. This was the bulk of their promoted U23 team.

We started beautifully and a starting five of Nathaniel, Paulino, Ewan, Leo and Lincoln hit top gear immediately, hitting 7 of our first 9 shots and taking an early and very promising 7-point lead. We hoped we could continue in this vain but it soon became apparent that they possessed a very talented shooter in their ranks and the combination of him beginning to connect and their unsettling full court press pulled them back into the game. It was a bad time to stop scoring and the first quarter swing was enormous. We scored 15 in the first five minutes which was lethal to going scoreless the rest of the quarter and coming in trailing by ten points. It's a lesson we must learn from and not repeat.

From there, the game was very evenly balanced but, unfortunately, we showed few signs of eating into their lead. They were using their superior size inside to dominate the boards and pick up easy buckets, keeping us at arms-length. We had a high scoring period with a unit of Tom Livesey, Ali, Pauli, Diddy and Tom Lyons but immediately released Tameside from the pressure it put them under.

Our third very promising spell came in the fourth quarter where we closed a 15-deficit to 5 with only two minutes to go. We had the momentum and it felt like we'd snatch it. Sadly, we allowed their hot hand an open three in transition and gave away a fast break moments later killing the game and flattering the opposition. A very disappointing result but we had some seriously exciting periods in the game where we were unplayable at times. Good times are definitely coming.

MVP: Pauli had spells of real dominance. He got his usual glut of steals and boards and scored at a great rate. 18 points and continued to put us in a position to win.