Lightning find their away form

After a series of indifferent matches on the road Lightning finally put together a commanding performance at Brunel University on Saturday. Hurricanes came in to this game looking to consolidate their second place in the league. However Lightning had other ideas. Having beaten them convincingly at home before Christmas we were confident that they could repeat that result away from home.

Rose Port started the game within an attacking line up of Becky James at GS and Lisa Stephenson at GA facing Hurricanes international back-line of Hutchinson and Mkoloma. Percy (WD), Clarke ( C) and Murphy (WA) were the mid court trio with Tomlin (GD) and Agbeze (GK) in the circle. The game started at great pace with errors all over the court and neither side able to control the game. Scoring was patchy for both teams as the defenses were dominant, making life difficult for both attacking line-ups. Agbeze and Tomlin in particular bottled up Josie Leuton at GS for Hurricanes and the England international couldn’t find her range. This low scoring quarter ended 9-10 in Lightning’s favour.

During the break Port brought on Astle at GS in place of James but retained the rest of her line-up. When the second quarter started Lighting were the team to find some rhythm. The Lightning mid-court put their opponents under tremendous pressure and allowed Agbeze and Tomlin to dominate the defensive circle. Lightning kept forcing turnovers and showed a lot of composure bringing the ball forward in the face of a very physical Hurricanes defence. As the quarter progressed Lightning started to edge ahead, gradually winning the mid-court battle and opening up a lead. At half –time the lead had grown to 6, 16-22 to Lightning.

In the third quarter Hurricanes coach Denise Holland rang the changes in her team bringing on Smith and Francis at C and WA respectively. However this did nothing to upset Lightning’s pattern of play and the gap between the teams continued to open up. Astle and Stephenson kept working tirelessly in the attacking circle in the face of very aggressive defending and the Lightning score kept mounting. The pace of the game never slackened and Hurricanes were desperate to get back in to contention in front of their home crowd. Bodies were flying everywhere, numerous hits in and out of the circle kept the umpires busy but Lightning kept their composure. An 8 goal cushion (23-31) at the end of the quarter was just reward for a strong performance.

The final quarter started with Hurricanes making further changes. Leuton left the court and Rose Okocha came on at GS, McFarlane at WD and Nichols returned at C. Unfortunately for them Lightning were within touching distance of a great win and weren’t in a mood to let it slip away. After 5 minutes the lead had stretched to 11 and there was no way back for Hurricanes. Lightning let the pace slip a little for a 3 minutes spell in the middle of the quarter and Hurricanes reduced the deficit to 9. After that the two sides traded goals until the final whistle and Lightning had won convincingly.

There were so many positives for Lightning in this game. Defensively Lightning are becoming an awesome unit and restricting a top four team to less than 35 goals was a

great performance. In addition Lightning put over 40 goals past an international standard defence. More importantly Lightning showed more fluency bringing the ball through court. The unforced errors that have characterised so many games to date were missing and in their place was a composed and mature performance. Lightning moved the ball with pace, kept offering all the way down the court and looked a strong attacking team. Clarke had her best game yet at centre, Agbeze was commanding in the circle once again and Tomlin showed composure with ball in hand. This win virtually guarantees Lightning a play-off place and it is now a question of finishing off the main league season strongly.