Bath triumph over Thunder in bank holiday battle

The game saw neck and neck play for the whole 48 minutes where it is safe to say, no-one knew how it would end. The last Thunder clash with Bath saw a horror double header for the Manchester team to which Bath would harness that confidence to use against the black and yellows.

It wasn’t until Thunder had a rocky few minutes in the final quarter that Bath managed to take the lead and win 44 – 41.

Despite the loss, the game was the complete opposite to their last coming together, with Thunder staying equal to Bath and at some points in the game, finding themselves 5 goals ahead.

Team Bath were having to do a lot of passes to get into the shooting circle, yet Thunder managed to get deeper much more effortlessly thanks to special long passes from the likes of Laura Malcolm. It was body to body and talents equalled in many areas on court, but bullet balls from Bath were making Thunder interceptions in the centre third difficult and with their defence tightened, Thunder struggled to enlarge a goal lead. Entering half time at an equal 23 a piece summarised how the whole game went! Champion’s quarter 3 couldn’t even decide the game so it went right down to the nail in quarter 4 but Serena Guthrie made some vital intercepts that changed the game, giving Bath a 3 goal gap that felt wider than the gap of London Underground as the game entered the last 3 minutes. Last minute score line pressure saw both teams make mistakes but Bath conclusively managed to hold onto their 3 goal lead by the final whistle.

Head Coach Karen Greig commented: “It was a disappointing end, but I am so proud of our performance in comparison to our last game against Bath. We had a formidable defence and made some great intercepts. Unfortunately, it was just those three minutes we lost our heads where we lost the game.”

Netball UK Player of the Match: Serena Guthrie.

Match report provided by Manchester Thunder.