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Oldham premier league side slipped to second defeat

26/1/2016

Oldham Netball Club’s premier league side slipped to their second defeat of the season, losing 44-41 to Surrey based The Downs on Sunday.

The home side started strongly and punished any early errors from Oldham, taking the lead out immediately, despite some strong shooting from Kathryn Turner. The centre court combination of Maria McAndrew, Gabby Marshall and Taylor Cullen were finding life tough as The Downs pushed on ahead, despite some flashes of their usual flair and strength. Oldham reached the break down by six - 15-9 to the home side.

Coach Debbie Hallas switched things up for the second quarter to try to stem the flow and the changes worked immediately. Marshall had much more influence at WD and Iona Darroch worked tirelessly at C, injecting some much needed drive into the attack. Emma Dovey was having her strongest game of the season so far, taking intercept after intercept to provide Turner and Krista Enziano the opportunities to bring Oldham back into the game. At the half The Downs led 27-23.

Oldham 55 v Tameside 54

26/1/2016

Oldham 55 Tameside 54
GS Lucy Stevenson (89%)
GA Sarah Brennan (64%)
WA Katie Bodha
C Amy Neild
WD Amber Hazelton
GD Gemma McDermott
GK Jess Dale
Bench: Rachel Fitzsimmons & Kimberley Meadows (38%)

Quarter scores (Oldham scores first)
1st qr 17 - 15
2nd qr 14 - 11
3rd qr 11 - 14
4th qr 13 - 14
POTM Amy Neild

The first game against Tameside, Oldham managed a great score against them, beating them 74 goals to 37. However Oldham knew it was going to be a different game today and that they had to be on top of their game. Oldham were slightly depleted in numbers and unfortunately, Victoria Austin was unable to even warm up due to a knee injury she suffered in training on Thursday. This left Oldham with only 9 players. Oldham lost the toss for the first centre, but managed to turn Tameside’s first centre over and was first on the scoring sheet. Oldham took their first centre straight to goal and went 2 goals up. The game was goal for goal in some parts and was already lining up to be a tough fought game. Oldham got 5 unanswered goals in this quarter, particularly as a result of some excellent feeds into the circle by Amy Neild, but Tameside just kept coming back at them. Oldham was leading the way only just within the first quarter 17-15.

Oldham introduced Kimberley Meadows at GA and Sarah Brennan went to WA. Oldham started the quarter well scoring the first 3 goals. Oldham got 3 early turnovers in the quarter and started to pull away from Tameside. However mistakes crept in for Oldham and allowed Tameside to come back at them scoring 3 goals in a row on two occasions. Oldham finished this quarter well scoring 5 unanswered goals taking the score to 31 – 26.

Going into the third quarter Bodha came back on at WA and Rachel Fitzsimmons entered the court at GD. It was goal for goal again, until Tameside managed to get 3 goals in a row, which seemed to be a common occurrence. Oldham had 14 turnovers in this quarter and only scored off 2 of them! With missed shots and a lot of careless unforced errors, Oldham allowed Tameside to come right back into the game taking it back to within 2 goals. At the end of the third quarter Oldham were hanging in there with the score at 42 goals to 40.

Final quarter could go either way and the pressure was on for both teams. Gemma McDermott came back on at GD and everything else stayed the same. With Tameside’s GA, Leia, dominating their attack it was important Oldham applied the pressure all the way through the court to support the defence. Tameside again got 3 and 4 goals in a row, without Oldham breaking their pattern of play. More errors were creeping in for Oldham and they began to panic with the ball. However after a very tough and well fought game Oldham managed to hold on to the lead and won the game by ONE goal! What a great game. Final score 55-54.

Suzy Ashworth quote:
“I am very pleased that the game is over! What a tense game. I don’t think we were on form as a team and I think our game plan just went out of the window when we got on court. All credit to Tameside they played very well, particularly Leia at GA was outstanding. I thought our defence unit worked very well and turned ball over, in fact we had 43 turnovers throughout the game, but unfortunately we just couldn’t convert them, which let us down. There were some moments of brilliance such as Amy Neild’s feeds into the circle and some interceptions made by Jess Dale, these kept us in the game and we managed a win. I am proud of the girls at keeping going all the way to the end. We have another tough game next weekend against Blackpool.”

Back to the top of the league!

15/1/2016

Oldham Netball Club’s Premier League side welcomed Turnford to the Oldham Leisure Centre on Sunday and came out with a hard-earned 51-45 win.

Oldham started with a strong seven, featuring Jamaican international Malysha Kelly, and duly started strongly, surging to a 4-1 lead. But the month long break since the last game showed and Oldham produced some errors and sloppy play to allow Turnford to gain a foothold in the game and take the lead 5-6. Kelly was working well in the circle with Emma Dovey, creating intercepts and turnovers after a slow start and Oldham started to play some better netball. Gabby Marshall was working well at WD, restricting the Turnford WA to only a few centre passes and was feeding some wonderful long balls in Amy Clinton under the post. Oldham led 14-10 at the break.

No changes for the second quarter for either side, and it started much the same, with Oldham taking the first few goals and then Turnford coming back in to the game. Whilst there were some flashes of the usual Oldham brilliance, they were few and far between and the quarter went goal for goal, ending 27-23 at the half.

Coach Debbie Hallas opted to bring on the experienced Krista Enziano for the second half to calm the attack end down and the change did work initially, with Maria McAndrew trading characteristic passes with Enziano for some good shooting opportunities. Kathryn Turner was working the front of the circle well and linking well with the mid-court and the newly introduced Taylor Cullen was turning over some brilliant ball at WD. Score at the break 39-33

No changes for the final quarter and another tight affair followed, with goals and turnovers traded with regularity. Oldham managed to extend the lead and take the win 51-45

Coach Hallas was happy with the win, although disappointed with the performance “We were definitely rusty after the Christmas break and although we showed flashes of fast flowing netball it was nowhere near consistent enough. Also our shooting stats were not acceptable, not at this level. Player of the match was Gabs Marshall who held the mid court together and showed some excellent feeding into the circle. Hopefully we will shake off the cobwebs and be up for our next challenge in two weeks away to third placed The Downs of Surrey. Results went in our favour with Academy losing to Oaksway which allowed us to move back to the top of the table.”

Starting 7: GS A Clinton GA K Turner WA M McAndrew C I Darroch WD G Marshall GD E Dovey GK M Kelly. Bench: K Enziano T Cullen A Tyrrell.