Netball ERGS Vs Fivemiletown

On Tuesday 29^th March, ERGS Inter Team played their final match against a reasonably local rival – Fivemiletown.

This has always been a tight match and today saw it to be no different.

The girls were keen to get a win under their belts after last weeks match against St Ronan’s – however, they knew it would be no picnic.

From the whistle, both teams came out strongly. Anna Wilson really dominated in the centre with Katherine Armstrong and Amanda Farrell right there supporting her. With lovely arcing passes into the shooting circle, Amanda and Gemma Elliott were able to slot away their shots in the first quarter. This is not to say that Fivemiletown were in any way idle, they too were getting their passes into their circle just not as frequently thanks to Olivia Beavis, Jane Black and Leah Irwin. 5-3 ERGS.

The second quarter saw the Fivemiletown defence tighten up with better marking in the circle. This meant that Amanda and Gemma began to get frustrated which had a knock-on effect on their shooting. Both girls were struggling to notch up their goal attempts. Again, thanks to the mid-court and defence play, we were still in the lead come half time. 7-5 ERGS.

In the third quarter, I shuffled the team a lot, bringing on fresh legs. This worked as in the initial part of the quarter, Amara Brady and Jess Ferguson slotted in 4 more goals between them. Annabelle Morrison slipped seamlessly into WA and provided the support for Anna in the centre. In defence, Natasha McKeown also brought a fresh perspective to the circle, ensuring she marked the Fivemiletown shooter closely. However – the goals were also wracking up for Fivemiletown, as they kept our lead within range. 11-8 ERGS

As the team had performed well in the third quarter, I only changed one position, Eloise Renwick came into GS. Once again, the girls started well however, a number of changes had taken place within the Fivemiletown team to allow them to make more of the ball than we did. Their GD was playing out of her skin, preventing the ball from even reaching the circle, or when it did, preventing the shot on goal. Fivemiletown were inching closer to our score. At 13 all, the swing of play was beginning to show on our girls as they became frustrated with their efforts. Nothing they seemed to do now was preventing a Fivemiletown score. With heavy sighs, we reached the end of the match. 18-15 Fivemiletown.

To say that I was gutted for the girls would be an understatement. They really put their heart and soul into the game, as always. For this reason, and for the sportsmanship they showed – I am very proud of this Inter Team.

Squad:

1. Annabelle Morrison
2. Eloise Renwick
3. Leah Irwin
4. Gemma Elliott
5. Amanda Farrell
6. Anna Wilson
7. Jane Black
8. Katherine Armstrong
9. Olivia Beavis
10. Natasha McKeown
11. Jess Ferguson
12. Amara Brady

With the Year 10’s next match being tomorrow – we played a friendly against Fivemiletown so they could get a run out. With one player just returning from Covid and another out with concussion, I wanted to try different combinations of players before Wednesday’s League match.

The starting team began with a solid show of lovely play, both cross court and channelled. Anna Cairns directed the play in the centre, ably assisted by Lucie-Anne and Jodie Thompson. The ball was thrown beautifully into the circle in a variety of ways with either Maria Bullock or Eloise McDonagh there to score the goals. During this period, the defensive players weren’t idle either – Emma Fawcett and Chloe Robinson ensured that Fivemiletown weren’t able to put many points on the board. 5-1 ERGS.

For the 2^nd Quarter, we switched a couple of players to see how they worked with each other. Caitlin Kelly came on in GS and Yoly Brannigan into GD. During this period of play, Fivemiletown brought the score back a little, as it took these girls (unaccustomed to this level of match play) a while to settle. ERGS however were still ahead 8-5.

With almost a full team reshuffle during the 3^rd quarter – we pulled away 11-7. Eva Howe came into WA, Emily McFarland into GS (moving Caitlin into GA), Jessica Foy into WD, Emma into Centre, Yoly into GD and Lauren McCordick into GK. Fabulous to have such depth to draw from.

For the final quarter, we returned to the starting team so they could have a good final blast before tomorrow. The girls gelled so well that they managed to prevent Fivemiletown from scoring in this quarter at all whilst notching up 5 more goals for us. 16-7 ERGS, final score.

This was a super effort by the girls and hopefully it will help their preparations for tomorrow’s match against Sacred Heart, Newry.

Squad:

1. Emma Fawcett
2. Jessica Foy
3. Chloe Robinson
4. Yoly Brannigan
5. Eva Howe
6. Maria Bullock
7. Anna Cairns
8. Jodie Thompson
9. Lucie-Anne Abbott
10. Lauren McCordick
11. Eloise McDonagh
12. Emily McFarland
13. Caitlin Kelly

Thanks to all the girls for a great day’s Netball.