Issue 152

Solent run riot as Swansea are comprehensively beaten

12th February 2007

Swansea were given a rough ride by their English counterparts in this largely one-way affair at the Sketty Lane Sports Centre. The teams appeared evenly matched coming out of the starting blocks and a fast flowing game ensued.

However Southampton gained an edge with their aggressive tactics; on several occasions the home players were pushed aside with the speedy Turner in particular being victimised which broke up breakaway moves. With the hosts' play suppressed in this manner, the visitors set about racking up their points total, finishing the first quarter 4- 15 ahead.

Swansea came into the second quarter seemingly invigorated by their team talk and the attacking channels began to flow properly. They started to function better and to regroup. Despite the quarter being evenly contested, the home side were to find themselves further behind with a halfway score of 7-27.

Two factors played important roles here: poor communication between the players leading to moves breaking down with possession being squandered and a lack of clinical finishing leading to attacks bearing no end product. This all began to add up and the effect of fatigue setting in was only going to make things worse.

Southampton Solent began to ease away in the third quarter with legs tiring and the lead unassailable. The visitors again utilised their direct style of attacking play, moving forwards in numbers to swamp the home side rendering attempts at marking useless.

A lack of errors appeared to be the key to Southampton Solent's success, spurred on by their extremely experienced coach. Swansea endeavoured to net a few baskets in the final quarter to save some face, good work from Mc Cormack and Cantrell paying dividends after plenty of bad luck had kept their number of baskets scored low. However, Solent netted four late baskets from breakaway moves that were far too easy before Haberlein had time to net for the hosts to leave the final score at 14-60.

When put into context, the game actually marked a positive step for the girls who are not at full strength and are building up their quality, with some interesting cup games still left to play. The team's coach explained: "Today marked a huge improvement for the girls. We are missing two key players at the moment which is unfortunate, so we had to try without them. I felt that we improved in the second half, maybe with a bit more motivation we can achieve better in the future.

Our individuals are improving all the time which should help us as a team.". It is clear that Swansea are building towards something and with better communication between players and a bit more understanding the scoreline could have been a lot closer.

Andy Williams