Leeds Hold Their Lead

Saturday 3rd November 2007
Lost 30 - 32

The dominant defence play produced several held balls, interceptions and some dynamic through court play giving Mavericks 67 shooting opportunities and an opportunity to win the game with a convincing margin (Leeds having had 44 shooting opportunities) however Leeds with their dogged determination and and grit combined with Neville and Greig finding the ring on more occasions enabled the visitors to take the 2 points

Mavericks were marginally ahead for three quarters of the game; Debbie Jones and Naomi Siddall were outstanding in both their commitment and leadership and combining with Ann Marie Muller as the WA in the starting quarter enabled Mavericks to hit the circle edge and give the ball to the shooters. Nicole Mcfarlane stepped up another notch from Monday and read some telling interceptions well initiating further attack from the defence. In the final quarter the lead changed hands and Leeds went 5 ahead; Mavericks dug deep and still did not let up in both their defence and attack and in the final 3 minutes there was the opportunity for Mavericks to get back to level. It wasn’t to be and a win to Leeds by a 2 goal margin. The Mavericks players knew the win was in their hands but each one of them needs to step up and work and improve more if the team is to achieve success.

Maggie Jackson following the match commented that it was all about everybody taking responsibility for ones own job and that applies to us as coaches too; we have to ensure each player in the squad is developed so they are able to deal and cope with this level of competition and that is exactly what we are working on with the squad; we just have to be more effective in doing this - that is what makes coaching such a great job.

The ball girls for this match were from a team that comes from Bedfordshire... Grangers Netball Club.