No Trace Of Sympathy

Tracey Neville was in no mood to roll out the welcome mat at the Manchester Thunderdome as Team Northumbria suffered their heaviest Superleague defeat of the season.

But bullish player-coach Sam Holt insisted the top flight strugglers will learn from a lesson in clinical netball after Northern Thunder roared to a 71-35 win.

And Surrey Storm can expect a thorough examination of their own title credentials when they visit Tyneside a week tonight.

“We always knew that this would be the toughest game of the season so far,” said Holt.

“But it became even tougher when we lost Marie Ewing to an ankle injury on Thursday night.

“And I wasn’t available due to an affiliation issue that wasn’t resolved earlier in the season.

“Vicky Burgess struggled after half-time in her first game back from injury and illness.

“And that just caught up with the rest of the players. They dipped at the end of every quarter and it allowed Thunder the chance to open up a big league.

“But I don’t think anyone will dwell on the result. We will pick out the positives and move on to Surrey looking to consolidate our combinations and tactics before the second phase of the season.”

TN were up against it from the start against a star-studded Thunder side expertly bossed by ex-Sport Central playcaller Neville.

With Karen Greig on fire the hosts stormed into a 16-8 lead after the first quarter. And Thunder had extended their advantage to 16 goals by half-time.

TN coach Lisa Stanley shuffled her pack throughout the third quarter with Burgess rapidly running out of steam following a serious bout of tonsillitis.

But Thunder’s relentless pursuit of goals saw the Manchester club move 30 goals ahead at the start of the final period.

“By the fourth quarter the girls on court were running on empty,” added Holt. “Leah Kennedy looked like she’d injured her shoulder again and although she’s fine it disrupted things even more.

“Thunder were able to bring on a lot of fresh legs and that just killed us. But we won’t look back on what happened today. We’re looking forward to another huge game against the Storm.”

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