Photo: Olivia Vitazkova
Glasgow 51-6 East Bank
Joe McLean
Glasgow lined up for their third league game of the new season at Strathclyde University’s Jordanhill Campus on a cold and dark November night.
Inside on the netball court things were soon heating up as Glasgow played the game at a blistering pace. Coach Leanne Hillan’s attack-minded side dominated this game from the off, making East Bank look like mere spectators at times and they passed the ball with tremendous fluency and ease.
East Bank took the centre and made an early attack on Glasgow’s defence, but this was easily mopped up by the strong opposition. From this, Glasgow quickly played the ball out to their Wing Attack, Lizz Yine, who fed the ball to Goal Attack Holley Willison, who in turn fed the ball to Goal Shooter Jayne Cameron — she scored the first of her several goals and really set the tone for this game.
In the first quarter Glasgow were relentless, pressuring East Bank, linking play well and going up the court at a speed the opposition struggled to cope with all night. Goal after goal rained down on the East Bank defence. Glasgow played with an air of confidence and elegance, with fast, sharp passing inside the goal circle. The link-up play from Willison and Cameron proved lethal; they seemed to win every ball that came into the goal circle and punished the defence. The quarter ended Glasgow 12 – 2 East Bank.
If East Bank thought they had it tough in the first quarter, they didn’t have to wait too long into the second to realise that Glasgow’s barrage of goals was going to keep on coming. They were on the back foot for most of this quarter, chasing Glasgow’s players and continuing to leak goals at an alarming rate.
Glasgow punished every piece of slack play from the opposition. The introduction of Wing Attack Helen Wright in this quarter marked an increase in tempo to an already frantic game. She dominated the centre third, mopping up loose balls, spraying clinical passes into the goal circle and flexing a confidence on the ball that East Bank could only dream of.
She was instrumental in the team’s patient build up play, when they couldn’t go direct, she played the ball out wide and Glasgow would bide their time before making the killer pass into the goal circle. The deadly Cameron continued to add to her ever increasing goal tally.
The only respite East Bank got in the second quarter was when Cameron got the ball stuck behind a basketball board. With play held up until a suitable replacement was found, East Bank could take a break from the onslaught. The quarter ended Glasgow 29 – 5 East Bank.
The third quarter saw Wright pick up where she had left off, and she could do no wrong as she won balls in the centre third of the court and continually made complete and precision passes. It was tenacious stuff from Glasgow and every pass into the goal circle landed at the glue-like hands of Cameron, she caught everything that came her way, even at times when she was fouled or off balance, she battled on to score point after point. She was pirouetting and balancing like a ballerina at times, making one-handed catches and never giving up, winning rebound after rebound and continually scoring goals.
The final quarter saw Glasgow make some changes: Wright was one of the players replaced and she could rest easy knowing she served her team well. Glasgow initially picked up where they had left off, Willison and Cameron continued to link up well and score goal after goal, but they started to get a bit complacent, with the game well won by this point.
This slackness allowed East Bank to peg a few goals back and Glasgow were losing balls in the centre third that they had been previously winning with ease. But this was to prove a minor blip. They soon recovered and picked up the pace, with the cool, calm and collected Cameron oozing class to keep scoring and settling any nerves that had set into the team at this stage. Glasgow did tire towards the end, but with the blistering pace they had set from of the offset, this could be excused.
