With both teams sitting comfortably at the top of Division I, with five wins and 20 points apiece, the game will be regarded as a crunch match by both sides – the destination of the title oft depends on the result of these massive encounters.Last year’s champions, St Clement A, know that Convent will be 100 per cent focused on the prize – as championship runners-up, they have nothing to lose and everything to play for.St Clement’s captain Shelby Houghton said: ‘We just have to go out there and play our best.
We’ve had some injuries this season, and some team members have been away so tonight will be only the second time that we’ve played with our full team.’That means we’re not as well-prepared as we would have liked.
We shall see what happens – we lost the first game of the season against Convent last year but won the title in the end.
I think they will be better prepared than us at the moment, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed we can pull it off this time.’Convent coach Linda Andrews said: ‘We’re not the champions so there’s no pressure on us.
We have a few younger girls in the squad this time so we are just looking to see how they cope.
All we’re really looking to do is to fulfil our expectations of ourselves and do ourselves justice.
As long as they are all happy with the way they perform, I’ll be happy, and we will be able to build on that.’She added that the team was looking forward to the game.’We are here to compete at the highest level we can, but it’s still early in the season.
The atmosphere that is always present when Convent and St Clement meet will be a new experience for some of our players, we know it’ll be a very competitive game, but we also respect each other’s abilities.’One of our younger players, Sophie Holmes, is only 15, and as goal shooter she’ll be up against Sharon West, the best defender Jersey has, but I’m hoping that Sophie will play to her usual standard and just fly.
‘I hope they all do.’The match takes place on FB1, starting at 7.45 pm.
Last night’s Deutsche Bank Offshore Winter Netball League matches: Division I: St Lawrence A 33, St Lawrence B 21; St Clement B 28, Convent B 32.
Division II: St Clement C 11, Convent C 50.
Division III: Convent E 51, St Brelade B 27; St Saviour A 50, Sylvans B 21.
Division IV: Academicals C 30, St Clement E 13.
