Glasgow Wildcats: Scotland's Superleague Team
"Wildcats Dominate An Electric Match"
"Wildcats dominated but ultimatley lost their narrow lead"
Glasgow Wildcats vs Leeds Carnegie
06/03/2010
Kelvin Hall
By Clare Carswell
The Wildcats dominated an electric contest against Leeds Carnegie but ultimately lost their narrow lead and the match, inside the final minute.
For the entire 60 minutes the teams thrilled and antagonised the home crowd as they played cat and mouse with the score line.
The Wildcats’ displayed determination from the moment they stepped onto the court. The home team led for the majority of the first quarter and prevented Leeds from settling into the game.
After eleven minutes, the Leeds side managed to draw the score at 6-6. With 2 minutes to go, June McNeill missed a chance to regain the lead and Leeds quickly bagged two goals before the whistle to take the quarter.
The response from the Glasgow side set the tone for the remainder of the match and a fierce battle ensued. One minute into the second quarter the Wildcats had levelled the scores 8-8.
Many of the home support thought that the Wildcats were leading at half time but McNeill’s shot passed through the hoop after the buzzer sounded and they had to settle for 18-18.
The second half of the match was exhilarating. A trend emerged whereby the Wildcats stormed into an early lead and spent the remainder of the quarter defending it.
“We just kept clawing it back and just really refused to give in as a team.” Leeds assistant coach, Marion Lofthouse, said.
The competition served to bring the best out of the Wildcats including a blistering passage of play from Brownie to Connell and on to McNeill before the ball reached MacDonald’s hands who increased their score to 36-34.
Leeds drew level with the Wildcats for the first time in the final quarter, 39-39, with 3 minutes to go. The crowd screamed their support when the Wildcats scored and edged back in front.
With one minute and two seconds on the clock the home crowd watched with anticipation only to see Leeds scrabble a desperate two goals from the Scots before the whistle.
Denise Holland, Wildcats coach said that the experience of a loss such as this will help the team progress, “I think we deserved those two points but equally we will have learnt more than our opposition today.”
The match was hard fought throughout with neither team able to stretch ahead. Wildcats’ Stephanie Doherty said, “We’ve never had a game that close before so it’s amazing to get that experience but we enjoyed the match and at times maybe we could have pulled away but then again so could they.”
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Last Game 30/04/10
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49-37 | 
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Netball Superleague 08/09
| Team | P | Pts. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Surrey Storm | 16 | 28 |
| 2 | Team Bath | 16 | 27 |
| 3 | Northern Thunder | 16 | 26 |
| 4 | Mavericks | 16 | 22 |
| 5 | Leeds Carnegie | 16 | 15 |
| 6 | Celtic Dragons | 16 | 7 |
| 7 | Glasgow Wildcats | 16 | 7 |
| 8 | Loughborough Lightning | 16 | 6 |
| 9 | Team Northumbria | 16 | 6 |
League table last updated: 30/04/10
