Strong middle two quarters show promise for the future

The youthful inexperience of the Centre court and the attacking end stood out against the athleticism and robust play put up by the Crystal Palace. The dominant play both in attack and defence of recently promoted Emma Hall and Ellouise Edwards was noticeably missed.

Both Georgina Penny and Grace Thomas were effective in building up attacking moves throughout the game and both fed the circle well. The shooters tried hard against 2 very vigorous defences who literally pounced on any arial feeds. This kept our scoring down considerably - in fact we failed to net more than 8 goals in any quarter.

Sonia Grant was brought on in the second half to add some weight and experience to the attacking end. She shot well but it was a tough game in which to make her debut after a very long absence.

Club could have defended better throughout the game in all three areas of the court. The team also needed to be more alert in 'dead ball' situations and be quicker to react to 'loose' balls. Too many passes were going square, which often created a gap in the mid-court, when what was required was to persevere with driving the ball long into the attacking end of the court creating more opportunities to feed the shooters.

Denise Grant and Sadie Burch worked well in defence. Denise was up against a sturdy shooter who held her space and was fed well, and was frustratingly accurate despite a poor shooting style. Shannon Murray also defended tightly at WD.

Coach Shirley Winsborrow was very pleased that the team tried hard to the end in a very challenging game, and is confident that things will improve with experience.

Quarter time scores:

1st quarter - 8-17
2nd quarter - 16-28
3rd quarter - 23-38
4th quarter - 31-53