Lethargic start to 2014 for KCNC 2

"The 2nd half of the season is always going to be a tricky affair. Teams that you’ve beat in the 1st half want to reverse that outcome second time round, so you need to be prepared to up your game. The five goal margin win against Hornets in 2013 was unfortunately not going to be the case this time round. The Hornets didn’t beat Club, Club defeated themselves in a game that was littered with unforced errors, lethargy and was frustrating to watch and probably frustrating to play.

Team line up: GS: Paige; GA Kirsty; WA Megan; C Debbie; WD Shannon; GD Sadie; GK Jemma.

Club took the first centre pass and gaveaway an immediate turnover to Hornet, the start of a bad day at the office for Club, with Hornets taking the ball down court and scoring. Hornet go on to score on their centre pass and again on Clubs next centre pass.....3 - 0. Although Club are stringing some good passing moves together the shots aren’t going in and we’re not rebounding. Kirsty, when she did get the ball in a shooting position, didn’t need to be told twice to put her shots up. In her trademark style she jump shoots her way to keeping Club in the game. However, Club only managed 5 goals to Hornets 10 at the end of the 1st Qter.

Drastic measures were needed to try and salvage something from the game resulting in a few changes for the 2nd Qtr. The defences switched, as did centre court and Kirsty gave way to Elize who came on to give the shooters some height in the circle at GA. The girls capitalised quickly on the changes and quickly penetrated the attacking third feeding the shooters who successfully put away shots to put Hornets under some pressure. Club forced Hornets to make errors and created turnovers. The Club defence were still being put under pressure from a very experienced shooting duo. Jemma, in particular, stood up well to the experience of Hornets as she terrorised the shooters by making interception after interception, rebounding and being the first to loose balls and then driving up court to support the attacking play (can this girl do no wrong?). (It was clear very early on that Jemma was going to have an awesome game in her bid for player of the match which she whole-heartedly achieved!)

The 2nd Qtr ended 11 v 10 to Club but still trailing 16 - 20 due to the poor start in the first qtr but 4 goals are nothing and we could quite easily pick up 4 goals.

The 3rd Qtr saw the introduction of Emma at WA and Grace at WD. Again, the girls got off to a good start but just as you thought things were getting back to normal and that the club girls had started playing Club netball a footwork call, an offside, a replay ball or something would crop up and just took the momentum away. The Qtr ended 9 - 5 which was a promising as we were now even at 25 goals a piece going into the final qtr. Surely this was the comeback we were hoping for……

However, it was not to be and someone went and pushed the Club self destruction button.....what happened out there stays out there! I personally do not want to witness that again. Lethargy; complacency; and any other “ee” descriptive word you can think of. It was just not like Club at all. I put it down to too many mince pies and christmas cake over the festive break with the final score Club 33 - 40 Hornets.

The game saw several of the Club players go to ground due to slippery conditions, etc. I too felt like throwing myself down on the ground, wailing uncontrollably like a baby having a tantrum. However the ground was wet, so I just decided to sulk, bottom lip out and everything!

Training on Thursday will be interesting to see how the girls bounce back and attack the training session. The trip to Guernsey will give the girls a good opportunity to play without worrying about the impact of the result, a chance to take risks and to just go back to playing the lovely netball that I have become accustomed to seeing from the 2nd team. Can’t wait to see that again".