Lexa Sawyer “very proud” of her netball girls

Netball captain Lexa Sawyer spoke of her pride after Glasgow claimed a dramatic victory with seconds remaining in the Taxis Cup.

Having defeated GCU, who had earlier beaten Strathclyde, everything on paper appeared to point towards a straightforward Glasgow win in the final game.

But Strathclyde had other ideas and raced ahead in the first quarter. Glasgow grew into the game and a number of heroic performances helped to secure a superb last-gasp 27-25 comeback win.

Sawyer revealed that her side had to overcome pre-game nerves to see off GCU in their first match. She said: “We saw that Strath lost to Caley so we were obviously a bit nervous about Caley. But we went into the game and managed to smash them 19-3 so we were fairly confident against Strath.”

Sawyer reflected on the decider against Strathclyde: “As always, they gave us a really good game and we were one down with two minutes to go. We put up a massive fight, probably the biggest shift we’ve done all season.

“We managed to win in the last thirty seconds by two goals. I didn’t know the score, even at the end. I was looking round and asking what the score was. It was the first time we’ve won for three years so I am very proud of all of my team and it was a great effort by everyone.”

In one of the most important games of the season, Sawyer felt that her side produced their most professional display. She said: “Normally, we would give up and put our heads down if things were going badly but, today, every time someone messed up, we made sure that we fought to get the ball back.

“Every time that we made an interception, we took it slowly and went back up. The shooting was unreal throughout the whole match and the defence all the way through the court was amazing.”

Speaking about the individual performances that most impressed her, Sawyer said: “Alicia Mathieson, our wing defence, jumped and smashed her head against the wall and still managed to keep the ball in. The second time, she dived across the floor and everyone just stopped; they didn’t think that she would make it, but the ball had been kept in play. She played amazingly throughout.

“Also, our fresher, Jess Lynch, who was playing goal shooter, is by far our most-improved player. We were lobbing balls to her and she was getting everything.”

And Glasgow intended to have a night out worthy of their performance, “Everyone put in a massive shift. We’re going to enjoy ourselves tonight.”