Harten heads win over Leeds in the Fiat Netball Superleague
Loughborough Lightning captain Jo Harten led by example in the Round 12 FIAT Netball Superleague clash with university rivals Leeds Carnegie, the match coming off the back of a spectacular win over the league’s defending champions.
“I’m very pleased that we have built on the victory against Bath with this performance,” said head coach Olivia Murphy, who once again took to the court for the full 60 minutes.
It was a solid and steady performance from Lightning against a Leeds side who quite literally threw away their chances at times as their co- coach Lisa Ferneyhough pointed out after the match. “We had more consistency tonight but our passing errors are something we’re really going to have to work on. There were some great interceptions only for us to follow it up by throwing the ball away in the mid-court.”
The home side were making few errors and the on-court partnerships were gelling Olivia Murphy and Jo Harten were inspiring the side, and Becky James who’s looking fit and good form this season missed just one shot as goal attack in the first half.
Loughborough were five better in the first quarter and four better in the second to enjoy a healthy half-time lead. A third quarter win of 16-10 was also helping boost the goal average but for Leeds the run out after half-time has been proving problematic with the team self- destructing in that 15 minute period, but not so much in the televised game.
It was a positive for Ferneyhough who for a rare time this season had a full squad to choose from, Jo Walker back after that nasty ankle injury in her last TV appearance. “We seem to come good in the last quarter,” said the co-coach (they draw that 11-11), “and we kept the score down in the third quarter. As a whole there was some good play and having Jo back on court was great.”
For Loughborough Lightning the comfortable win keeps them in with a chance of a play-off place and there was enough in the performance to keep the coach happy. “It was a good to be able to change the shooting circle and still maintain our impact,” Olivia Murphy mused. “Another positive was the composure the players maintained when Leeds pressed us.”
As for Ferneyhough she knows what she wants from her side going into Saturday’s game with Glasgow Wildcats: “We need to keep bringing consistency to the game but we have to address our error-rate and expand our short ball options.”
