In their game against Sussex, on their home turf in Horsham, and which Jersey lost 49-45, The Moore Stephens Senior Island side at first found the difference in pace difficult to assimilate and match.’It was a case of getting used to being in the higher division,’ Gill Kaye, who is Linda Andrews’ assistant, said.
‘It took a while for them to get into that higher gear, but Sussex very kindly worked out a stats sheet for us and when we analysed it later, both teams had 64 shots on goal, the only difference was that they converted four more than we did.
That shows how close we were.
We used the whole squad and they all played really well.’Andrews said: ‘It was just so good to be able to play against that standard of opposition.
Our girls really competed.
If we had played a friendly against one of them first we would have had a better idea of what we were going to be up against.
Holly Oakes, who is still only 17, was amazing, completely unfazed and she played out of her socks.’The match against Wiltshire was Jersey’s home match, and played on neutral ground, in Portsmouth – and this time the Jersey girls knew what to expect and were ready, running out winners 37-35.While the opposition’s standard of play was very much the same, Jersey were more mentally prepared and were well aware of what they’d be up against.’They just went straight in and delivered a 100 per cent work-rate from the first whistle,’ Kaye said.
‘They knew they couldn’t do anything less and get away with it.
At this level any lapse in concentration is pounced on by the opposition.’Andrews agreed.
‘The girls in the squad are from league teams which dominate Division I, and when they play they control the pace of the game and can drop it or pick it up when they want.
They can’t afford to lose concentration for a minute in the national league, they have to maintain it all the way through.’Jersey also have to find a way of dealing with the tiredness caused by two matches in two days.’The other teams, based in England, play just one match in a weekend but because we are travelling over to England we have two,’ Andrews said, ‘In the last few minutes of the match against Wiltshire our girls had had enough, it was as though they had hit the wall and just couldn’t give any more.
Our next matches are not until January, so we will have to work on overcoming that problem for next time.’Worthy of special mention over for the way they played over the weekend were Jenna Bushell, who usually plays WA but was playing WD for the first time since the inter-insular; Jackie Nelson who had an amazing game on Saturday and led the attack; and Zoe Hotton who, on Sunday was back on form and did the business.And Andrews, who was very pleased with the way the weekend went, said: ‘This is just the standard of opposition we need.
The whole team coped very well and if we can give the girls the opportunity to play against opposition of this standard, that’s the way forward.’
