Team Bath's Superleague netballers suffered their first home defeat of the 2013 season by 66-58 to Celtic Dragons at the University of Bath's Sports Training Village this evening.
In a top-of-the-table clash, Dragons perfectly executed the long ball to their totem goal-shooter Lottysha Cato to great effect while Team Bath could not convert their turn-over ball.
"Our attacking game was not good enough," said coach Jess Thirlby, whose side had beaten the Dragons in their own Welsh lair just a week before to stay at the top of the Showdown League standings.
"When we played them at home we were more consistent in attack," added captain Asha Francis.
"They did nothing unexpected today it was more things that we were doing to ourselves. We did not have the same self-control as a week ago."
This was indeed a slightly unvarnished Team Bath performance. The opening quarter set the pattern with accurate passing from the Dragons into Cato, who converted metronomically.
Team Bath, meanwhile, worked the ball from defence to attack but gave too much ball away.
"We could not convert the turn-overs in defence," said Thirlby who despite her clear disappointment with the overall performance was still pleased with the roles played by three of her younger players, Sam Cook at goal-keeper, Mia Ritchie in mid-court and Kadeen Corbin as a shooter.
"In the past we have had people who step up when it matters but we seemed somewhat leaderless today and there was no energy in our game," she added.
Honours went to the visitors in the first quarter 17-15, barring a couple of crucial turn-overs from Sam Cook at goal-keeper Team Bath might have trailed by more. The home team fought back from 15-10 down with five minutes to the interval.
The second quarter saw more of the same but just with greater intensity from both sides. Once again Cook and Stacey Francis at goal-defence fought like demons to keep the ball away from Cato whenever they could to give the home side the chance to counter. Serena Guthrie, the England wing-defence, also made some acrobatic interceptions.
Trailing 20-15 soon after the interval the home side bounced back with some super mid-court intensity to reach 20-19. A rare fluffed ball from Francis to Corbin flattened the option of drawing level.
Celtic Dragons took full advantage, moving to another five-goal margin at 25-20 as an under-pressure Team Bath slipped up around their attacking circle a number of times.
The more than 600-strong crowd lifted the roof after a suddenly on-fire Cookey sealed another fightback when she hurled a lightning fast-feed into Corbin who scored to level at 27-27.
The revival was by dint of hard work from Team Bath, a little luck and a momentary slackening of accuracy of the feed to Cato from her team.
It could have been even at half-time but for some penalties given for contact in the centre-court melee which put Bath on the back foot at 32-20 at the interval.
Dragons stayed ahead in the early exchanges of the third quarter despite further intercepts from Guthrie who swapped positions with Mia Ritchie to go to centre. Coach Jess Thirlby also switched her shooters' positions but made no substitutions.
This was a quarter of trading blows which ended 17-17 but with the league leaders still behind by two goals at 49-47. Team Bath led by asingle goal at 44-43, 46-45 and 47-46 but could not press home any advantage.
In the final quarter, Thirlby rested wing-attack and Captain Asha Francis for Amanda Trounce only to see Trounce go down to an ankle injury after three minutes, bringing Francis back on court.
For the visitors wing-defence and captain Kyra Jones kept up the intensity in mid-court and service resumed to Cato who notched up three in a row to put Dragons 52-49 ahead.
Team Bath responded with a fired-up spell to draw level at 54-54 but succumbed to a couple of errors which ultimately swung the momentum back to the visitors again who surged to 59-54 and closed out the game at 66-58.
"Now we need to re-build for the next two fixtures. We are playing to finish in the top two and secure a home semi-final," said Thirlby.
Team Bath face two away matches, against Hertfordshire Mavericks on Friday and Surrey Storm on Monday, May 13, to conclude the Showdown League phase.
