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7th May 2013
The Celtic Dragons suffered a disastrous defeat to Surrey Storm at home last night following a poor performance, whilst the clinical southern visitors walked away with second place in the league winning 46 – 76.
A win for the Dragons would have secured them a home advantage for the semi finals, but they must now bounce back and beat Hertfordshire Mavericks on Wednesday night in front of a live TV audience and home crowd.
Melissa Hyndman was less than impressed by her players whom she did not believe were the true Celtic Dragons.
“They [Storm] didn’t play the Dragons today, I don’t know who they played today but it wasn’t our team.”
Within minutes Dragons found themselves 0 – 5 down and they played a fruitless game of catch up for the entire 60 minutes.
The two sides shot an equal 84% on goal, but Dragons’ errors and Storm’s skill meant the visitors could feed England shooter Rachel Dunn many more times than Dragons could find Lottysha Cato in reply.
Storm took the first quarter comfortably 11 – 20, and Melissa Hyndman made several changes to her mid court and attack.
Bethan Dyke (pictured below) and Nichola James (pictured above) took up position on the wings, whilst playmaker Kyra Jones moved to centre and Cara Moseley moved into the attacking circle to goal attack.
Storm Coach Tamsin Greenway kept her seven the same.
Unfortunately for the supporters the first quarter blip carried over to quarters two, three and four, and despite some good feeds from young Dyke to Cato, and great defensive pressure from the Dragons, the hosts could not stop Dunn and Ash Neal from receiving the ball.
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Both Surrey shooters were excellent in completion, and Neal especially so for shooting continuously from range.
Dragons went into the changing rooms at half time 13 goals down, and they came back determined to right the wrongs.
It wasn’t to be the case as they proceeded to the final quarter with an even larger 18 goal deficit to try to claw back.
Hyndman made changes at each break, meanwhile Greenway saw the opportunity to expose her other players in the final session, brining Alex Sinclair to keeper, and Stef Bello and Kat Ainsworth to the wings.
A pleased Coach Greenway spoke after the game.
“We’ve obviously gone away and worked on a few things, I was particularly impressed with our attack end tonight.
“It’s puts the pressure on to Celtic which I don’t think we’ve done to them so far this season.”
Greenway said they will need a different approach going into their final game against TeamBath on the 13th May.
“It’s two completely different teams unfortunately, you go from a holding shooter to a rotating circle and full of England internationals as well.
“I’m not expecting big things, I’m just expecting a composed performance.”
Hyndman will look for her side to return to their former self on Wednesday following a tight turn around of recovery and analysis.
“Bring on Mavericks and let’s go from there.” she said.
Quarter Scores:
Q1: CD 11, SS 20
Q2: CD 23, SS 36
Q3: CD 38, SS 56
Q4: CD 46, SS 76
Shooting Stats:
Celtic Dragons
Lottysha Cato 32/37 86%
Emma Thomas 1/1 100%
Cara Moseley 6/7 86%
Chelsea Lewis 7/10 70%
Surrey Storm
Rachel Dunn 55/64 86%
Ash Neal 21/26 81%
