Wow! Wow! Wow!
What a difference a week can make. An injury littered Wilmslow travelled to Sheffield on the 18th May only to fall 13-4 to a strong home team, although we showed improvements from the first fixture it would be possession in the 2nd half, a lack of goals and some ugly penalties that made for a Wilmslow loss.
Fast forward a week to our 2nd Junior Flags Final in two years and the crowd and Sheffield would see a much different Wilmslow performance. The final in 2025 would be one sided with a very experienced Cheadle A team lifting the silverware, Wilmslow learn from the loss and have grown as a team of this season. Saturday saw a relaxed vibe as Wilmslow arrived at the fields, we'd discussed a couple of game plan options in the run up but come game day it was all change.
It was very much "what will be will be" and Wilmslow's plan was go out hard to start the game by throwing all our energy in to the opening 5 minutes and see what happens by dodging hard with heads up, pushing transition and playing the ball hard to create Sheffield errors. Wilmslow came out hard as planned but would extend that pressure and fast pace for longer than the first 5 minutes and Sheffield were on the backfoot going up 3-1 in the first quarter, Wilmslow looked like they were really clicking. Goals from Eastwood, Chatterton and again from Eastwood.
We'd been here before with an early lead on Sheffield, we had to come out hard again the second quarter and we did with Pinky bagging his first. A short Sheffield rally was crushed by Wilmslow's defense and a smart timeout on a clear would help Wilmslow keep their composure to on a 5 goal run. Eastwood found the goal again, 2 from Pinky. Sheffield would call a much needed timeout but it was too late and actually gave Wilmslow a short rest before going hard again to score through Burgess and again Eastwood.
No body would have had money on Wilmslow winning 9-2 at the half and the Sheffield team looked like they'd been hit with a baseball bat. Every Wilmslow player was having a great game but Mark Bowe at the face off X was proving that he really is valuable cog in the Wilmslow machine.
The second half soon saw Wilmslow man down and Sheffield would bag their second. But Wilmslow would answer through Eastwood, Chatterton,, Eastwood. Captain Jordan Bolley was having his best game of the year, gobbling up ground balls and playing some outstanding defense. Another good timeout and Wilmslow got a much needed break before putting there foot to the floor and coming out at top speed. Mellor would score on a man-up, again Mellor from a Perrin assist. Chatterton off a Mellor assist. Sheffield timeout and they scored shortly after from a man-up.
The end of the third quarter and it's safe to say the game was done with a 16-3 lead. Wilmslow had thrown everything in to the game to earn that score. The last quarter saw Wilmslow play a lot of man down defense with Sheffield opening the period before Pinky scored again. Credit to Sheffield, they had a great last quarter and played some very nice man up and took their chances well to score the next 3 goals. Eastwood would get the next 2 for Wilmslow, Simon Rowlinson could been seen fanboying in the crowd. Andrews scored for Wilmslow but it would be Sheffield who would score the last goals of the goal with 2 in the last two minutes.
A final score of 20-9 for the Slowtown boys. As a player and coach of 35+ years at Wilmslow it's fair to say there at a number of legendary names over that time that are often still taken about. Junior Flags Final 2026 has seen many names added to the list of legends.
Enjoy the win. We earnt it.
Then.....we go again.
