3 out of 3 for England Netball

England Netball have completed their international series victory over Trinidad and Tobago tonight at the Echo Arena with a trouncing score line of 69-36.

New coach Tracey Neville was forced to shake up the England squad throughout the series with several regulars still competing for their ANZ franchises down under.

Manchester Thunder Goal Shooter Helen Housby played all three matches, returning favourite Sonia Mkoloma came in at Goal Keeper and Captain Pamela Cookey started in Wing Attack.

So were these changes just what England needed to win three out of three matches against their Caribbean visitors Lollipop?

As the Superleague season finished on 25^th April the team were only together a few weeks. Lollipop presumed some players would be worn out but there was no sign of an end of series slump as the girls put on their best performance of the three matches.

Neville changed her team around throughout the match. GS Rachel Dunn came on for an injured Kadeen Corbin and in the second half N-Hizzle took the WA bib while Hertfordshire Mavericks captain Sasha Corbin came on at Centre and Cookey switched to GA.

Then in the third quarter Team Bath’s Samantha Cook came on at GK with Maverick’s Layla Guscoth at GD.

Player of the Series went to our newest centurion Pamela Cookey while Sara Bayman was awarded Player of the Match following another sublime display.

Having already won the series Neville could afford to switch up her side and it clearly worked as the girls strengthened their lead and showed how much England had improved since their poor performance last year at the Commonwealth Games.

The team failed to secure a medal and Neville came down hard on her new squad after their loss to New Zealand in the Semi- finals.

“There is a lot of words being used like should have and we didn’t,” said Neville to BBC Sport.

“We didn’t learn from our game against Australia and we didn’t have that closing out the game strategy on the court today.”

But tonight she seemed proud of her squad and said: “If they can learn that quickly I’m really excited going into June, July, leading into that World Cup.”

England came third in the 2011 World Netball Championships and have only made the final once in the competition’s entire history in 1975.

Neville will be hoping to pick an even stronger team that triumphed tonight and she could shake things up even more when the squad head to Belfast for Netball Europe later this week.

Neville will then name her final 12 next month that will go on to compete at the Netball World Cup in Australia.If tonight is anything to go by it will be a tough decision for the former Manchester Thunder coach.

With tonight’s opponents ranked 9^th in the world Lollipop expected England to win but not so comfortably.

England have shown they could be hard-hitting competitors in the upcoming World Cup. But of course there is always one team that stands in their way.

Trinidad and Tobago starting 7: GS – Wallace, GA- Cooper, WA – Jack C Guereo, WD – Connelly, GD – Duncan, GK – Swift.

England Starting 7: GS – K. Corbin, GA – Housby, WA – Cookey, C- Bayman, WD – Malcolm, GD – Francis, GK – Mkoloma