Northern Thunder vs Lightning - Dec 05

Northern Thunder 41 – 60 Loughborough Lightning

Friday 16 December 2005, Liverpool

‘Lightning silence Northern Thunder’

Loughborough Lightning worked hard to gain their second away win of the season as they travelled to Liverpool to take on Northern Thunder in the sixth round of matches in the Netball Super League. Coach Rosie Port named a new starting line-up, notably by the absence of the injured internationals Olivia Murphy and Ama Agbeze.

Throughout the first quarter, Lightning found bringing the ball through court relatively free of difficulty, however Thunder also worked well in attack to stay in contention, with the first quarter ending 10 – 7 to Lightning. Although Thunder were without their international goal shooter Karen Greig due to injury, the versatile centre court player Anna Newell, was surprisingly effective for Thunder at GA, and proved difficult for Lightning to contain.

The second quarter saw Lightning extend their lead with the centre court maintaining their low error rate and Lightning’s defensive unit of Clarke, Brown and Reid beginning to work more cohesively to restrict the Thunder attacking moves.

Alex Astle, who posted another consistent performance, worked well to dominate the shooting circle, using her height and positioning to allow some excellent feeds from Atkinson at WA and Percy at C.

At half time, Coach Rosie Port introduced Munnion at GD and O’Neill at C in the hope that ‘fresh legs’ could help Lightning to further disrupt Thunder’s rhythm. After a fantastic five minutes of total dominance, Lightning failed to capitalise on a couple of opportunities, giving Thunder a glimmer of hope. However this slight wobble was soon forgotten as Lightning composed themselves to take control of the game.

The final quarter was far more composed than the third, and Lightning’s whole-court defence proved particularly effective with Lightning making numerous turnovers to take the match 60 – 41.

Rosie Port will be particularly pleased to know that even without two of Lightning’s international players they have the strength in depth to produce consistently dominant performances.