Lightning Hold on at Bath

On Friday night Lightning travelled to face in Team Bath in a critical match for both teams. Lightning had never won at Bath but were looking to maintain their impressive form and stay top of NSL. TeamBath, the reigning Champions, had to win to keep their hopes of a top two finish alive.

The first few minutes of the game signalled that this was going to be a physical encounter with both teams fighting to get their hands on the ball. However Lightning managed to shade the early exchanges with the attacking trio of Hampshire (WA), Harten (GS) and James (GA) working overtime to create space and scoring at opportunities. Clarke at WD was shutting down Sasha Corbin Bath’s WA and the home team started to struggle bringing their ball through court. By the end of the quarter Lightning had ground out a 3 goal lead but the match was still anyones for the taking.

The second quarter started where the first left off, tough intense netball was being played by both sides. Initially it looked as thought the introduction of England international Jo Binns at WA for Bath would help swing the game back to them. Clarke and Murphy in the Lightning mid-court had other ideas though and even with Binns presence Bath were struggling to find their shooters. As the quarter progressed the Lightning defence managed to force some critical errors from Bath and, with Harten and Stephenson shooting well, Lightning had extended their lead to 9 by the break.

At this point the game was there for Lightning’s taking one more solid quarter and they could have shut the door in Baths face. However some tactical changes to the Lightning line-up didn’t work as planned and Bath stormed back in to the game during the third quarter. Alex Wood replaced Harten at GS but the feed in to her simply wasn’t working and Bath repeatedly turned over Lightning ball. A defensive change also allowed Bath’s key attacker, Pam Cookey, more space and she took full advantage. Having lead by 9 at half-time it was back to all square for the start of the final quarter.

With a large and partisan Bath crowd sensing the chance of a great victory they urged their team on and Lightning were under pressure. However it is at moments like this that teams find out how strong they really are and collectively Lightning stepped up to meet the Bath challenge head on. The first minutes were nip and tuck exchanges with the score staying level but then Lightning took a couple of crucial interceptions and opened up a slender 3 goal lead. The battle had started to marginally swing Lightning’s way but Bath dug in and kept fighting all the way. There were moments when Lightning could have taken the lead out to four but the Bath defence never allowed daylight to appear between the two teams. Going in to the final minute Lightning still had their three goal lead and they kept their composure. With ball in hand they patiently created scoring chances whilst running the clock down and then defended as intensely as they had in the first minute of the game. Bath couldn’t create turnovers and Lightning took the game 49-47 for a fantastic win.

This leaves Lightning at the top of NSL and, baring scoring miracles by Mavericks in the next few weeks, almost certain to reach the play-offs in one of the top two places.