Loughborough Lightning 'played horribly' in Surrey Storm defeat, says Sara Bayman
Wednesday 10 April 2019 15:06, UK
Loughborough Lightning gave themselves “a mountain to climb” in Monday’s defeat to Surrey Storm, Sara Bayman said.
Lightning remain in the top four of the Netball Superleague despite losing 59-63 to Storm.
Director of netball Bayman said: "We played horribly, the first half particularly. We looked flat. We gave ourselves a mountain to climb, which we couldn't do.
"We showed patches of what we could do. But we never got into a rhythm. There was no flow, no intensity. It is pretty disappointing."
Lightning were previously unbeaten in seven games with the same line-up, and Bayman said: "Having a set seven can be a good thing. We injected Zara Everitt into the game early to add a bit of energy but everyone looked out of sorts.
"I'd rather it happened tonight than later in the season."
Surrey director of netball Mikki Austin said: "I couldn't be prouder of every one of them - they gave those wearing a bib the push that we needed.
"I'm proud of us for executing the game-plan. We needed that. We proved in the past three or four games that we can run any team for 30 minutes, so to execute for the last quarter and stay goal-for-goal with them was exactly what we needed.
"The thing we've been missing was that injection, that change of pace. Giving the opposition something different to think about. But it's not about me. If you deserve the bib you keep wearing it."
The Vitality Superleague continues on Sky Sports with four live games across a busy Easter weekend - from 1.45pm on Saturday April 21 we have Sirens vs Lightning and Pulse vs Thunder and then from 3.45pm on Sunday April 22 we have Storm vs Stars and Bath vs Mavericks.
