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

Defeat for Manchester Thunder but success for Netball Superleague

So a day has passed since the Superleague Semi-final where Lollipop and I watched Manchester Thunder fall to Hertfordshire Mavericks in front of a record- breaking crowd at the Manchester Arena 41-48.

It meant that the 2014 champions failed to make the final that would have been a repeat of last year’s thrilling encounter against Surrey Storm who saw off Yorkshire Jets 76-60 in the other tie.

Instead it was a dominant Hertfordshire Mavericks that clinched a place at next Saturday’s final. Despite the loss the team were thrilled to have played in front of 4,100 spectators.

Captain Sara Bayman said: “I would love to play at the arena again. We walked out of the changing rooms and the noise was incredible.

“I don’t think we expected it to be as good as it was and the Manchester public come out in force for sporting events and today was not different.

“We feel disappointed to not seal this event with a victory and for the fans, but hopefully we put on a good enough game for them to see and to come again.”

The match reflected both the growing popularity of netball and women’s sports as Sky Sports broadcasted the match live.

Coach Tracey Neville said she was proud and honoured to be sharing in what she hoped would be Thunder’s home venue in the future.

But after such a devastating defeat will Manchester City Council stay behind our team Lollipop?

Before the match Councillor Rosa Battle, Manchester City Council executive member for culture and leisure said: “Manchester Thunder’s players are local sporting heroes and we should all be proud of their success.”

Thunder were unbeaten throughout the entire Supereague season and were Netball Superleague champions 2012 and 2014.

For that alone the girls deserved to play at such an iconic venue.

Manchester has been hooked on the girls progress with The Wright Robinson Centre aka The Thunderdome regularly sold out at each home fixture.

Yesterdays feisty encounter was the perfect advert for UK Netball. By the start of the final quarter the teams were level at 35-35. Lollipop could barely watch as a miss by GS Helen Housby allowed Mavericks to capitalise 35-36. They soon pulled away from Thunder as they slowly imploded and Shooter Sasha Corbin netted her side to victory.

Coach Tracey Neville was scathing of her players and said: “I think that performance has been coming in the last few weeks and you get found out by an experienced team.

“Mavericks played their best netball and beat us. Frankly, we didn’t deserve to win that game.”

Thunder were deflated but Mavericks could go on to make Netball just as popular at London’s Copperbox next Saturday.

Third place is still up for grabs for Thunder as they play Northern rivals Yorkshire Jets but success for women’s sport has already been achieved thanks to Lollipop and the other few thousand that turned up last night.

Manchester Thunder starting 7: Kerry Almond GK, Emma Dovey GD, Laura Malcolm WD, Sara Bayman C, Chelsea Pittman WA, Kathryn Turner GA, Helen Housby GS. Substitute: Jodie Gibson GD.