Alley and McKinney doubles sink the Titans
Trafford Metros 5 - 1 Telford Titans
This was the first of this season's meetings with the team which took the Division Two title last year, putting the Metros into runners-up spot. The Trafford squad was keen to prove that last year's league positions were upside down. In the event, the Titans were nearly unrecognisable from the team that ran away with the show-down game at Telford: just five players from that game icing on Saturday night.
A strong start to the game from the visitors took the Metros a little by surprise, but they soon weatherd the storm and began to exact their own pressure. Twenty seconds into a seventh minute Telford Tripping penalty, Jon Maw gave the puck to Jamie Rogerson on the home blue-line and he dipsy-doodled down the left-hand boards to score from a seemingly impossible angle. Telford fought back to equalise six minutes later. The Metros scored the official game-winning goals shortly before the first interval, Nick Alley netting from close range assisted by Brian Worrall and Ashton Jenion.
Trafford adjusted their line formations in the first break and the extra variety and additional recovery time that came from icing an additional line meant that the home side increasingly began to dominate possession. This pressure produced the third goal just short of the half-way mark: Andy McKinney scoring the first of his brace with a picture-perfect team effort, assisted by Nick Alley and Brian Worrall.
The same combination produced the fourth goal three minutes into the third period, McKinney netting his second of the game. The forty-eighth minute saw Trafford incur two minor penalties and face seventy seconds of a two-man Telford powerplay. The Titans sensed a come-back and pressed forward leaving themselves exposed, and the Metros pounced with Sean Day releasing Nick Alley to hoodwink the Telford goalie to put the game beyond the visitors reach. In what had been a quiet game, tempers finally frayed and two players from each side were ejected.
A Metros' official said: "Telford was a team that beat us three times last year, so we felt that we had something to prove. Missing a complete line of forwards made us a bit lop-sided to begin with but, once the adjustments were made, the result seemed likely to go our way. We scored at least three high-light reel goals and had significantly better defending, but certainly didn't play to our full potential. There's a great deal more to come. This win will give us a significant confidence boost."
Metros Man of the Match: Jamie Rogerson
Game Stats:
Shots on Goal (shots on Metros first): 29 - 48
Penalty minutes: Metros 18; Titans 28.
Metros' stats: Nick Alley 2+2, Andy McKinney 2+1, Brian Worrall 0+2, Jamie Rogerson 1+0, Sean Day 0+1, Ashton Jenion 0+1, Jon Maw 0+1.
Nets: Tom MacDonald (60 mins.) 29/1 96.55%
