Netball Superleague: Manchester Thunder rally to beat Surrey Storm
Monday 16 March 2015 11:16, UK
Manchester Thunder remain undefeated in the Netball Superleague after beating Surrey Storm 58-47 in Guildford.
It was their first ever victory in Surrey and virtually secures Manchester a home semi-final.
Thunder took over in the fourth quarter to cement their victory after three tense and nervy periods of play that couldn't separate the sides.
Chelsea Pitman's feeds into Helen Housby in the final 15 minutes provided daylight between the teams after the score was locked at 39-39 at the end of the third.
A cagey opening quarter saw Storm creep ahead by four points and Pamela Cookey denied in her attempt to add a further score when her foot strayed out of play.
Thunder ended the first quarter ahead but their lead vanished after a Pitman error handed Surrey the chance to make it 14-14.
Tenions palpably rose as Thunder's Sara Bayman and Storm's player-coach Tamsin Greenway engaged in a heated exchange of words. Storm led by three at the break but it could have been more - England shooter Rachel Dunn ended the game with 76 per cent accuracy.
New Storm signing Bongiwe Msomi was having an impressive showing but Thunder remained threatening largely through Housby's unrelenting accuracy. The sides couldn't be separated heading into the final quarter.
Game plan
Pitman and Housby began to clinically link up but Thunder's work was undone by a Kathryn Turner error that helped Storm back into contention. Turner responded with a long shot to put Thunder back in control.
Thunder increasingly took over as the clock ticked and they opened an 11-point advantage that Storm couldn't compete with.
Laura Malcolm, Thunder player of the match, said: “We've never won at the Surrey home ground. I think we just had to keep our heads as it always about the mental side of the game playing those guys and we made less errors. That gave us the edge.
“In the final quarter I think we just stuck to our game plan and went back to what we had practised in training.
“We've had lots of close games and you don't always get umpire calls that you want but I think we dealt with it better at certain points of the game.”
