Depleted Strike Force was the Difference in Netball Defeat
After a midweek win away to Strathclyde, Stirling Women’s Netball 1sts had no time to rest before playing second in the league St Andrew’s 1sts.
The two teams traded goals for the 1st quarter, with neither looking like opening up a lead. In the secodn quarter things got a bit more exciting with St Andrew’s being the first to opening up a ten point gap between themselves and Stirling. Unfortunately for the university, this lead was built to last and even a 4th quarter comeback could not make up for events earlier in the game.
Stirling‘s goal tally suffered without Laura Gibson in the starting lineup. Normally notching by double figures in goals and setting up countless assists, Gibson only played the final quarter, which by that time was too late to really impact the result. Without Gibson, the other half of Stirling’s Sensational Strike Force, Laura Hines, had her work cut out trying to win the match on her own.
On her own Laura Hines just couldn’t score enough goals to win the match, but did succeed in giving a master class on how to peel away from defenders-take note Rooney, Van Persie and Augero, Stirling’s GA could teach you a thing or two.
Unfortunately it’s a great team that wins games not great players, and today St Andrew’s were pretty great. Looking a little quicker throughout the game they maintained their early lead till the very end, winning the game 37-42.
With their next game away to Dundee 1sts on Nov 21st, Stirling's Ladies will need to regroup fast to have any chance of beating last year’s league runners up.