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LINDA ANDREWS was left struggling to believe the achievements of Team Jets yesterday following their promotion to Premier League 2.
In the aftermath of their last-gasp victory against Leyton, which gave the Islanders passage out of PL3 at the first time of asking, the head coach was ecstatic as their dream of back-to-back promotions came true thanks to two wins from three at Loughborough University.
Team Jets 32-40 Kent County
Shooting: Holmes 54%, Pitman 58%, Tonner 50%, Kent 67.7%
Team Jets 44-29 Dominoes
Shooting: Holmes 92.5%, Pitman 65.5%, Dominoes 67.4%
Team Jets 37-36 Leyton
Shooting: Holmes 73%, Pitman 78.2%, Leyton 69.2%
*Team Jets and Kent County promoted to PL2, Dominoes and Leyton relegated to PL3
Speaking of Jets’ recovery from defeat to Kent, and their late six-minute surge against Leyton after a fire alarm had stopped play, Andrews continued:
‘It was tough after the Kent game because A, they’re not used to losing and B, they don’t like losing. So when you’re giving a team talk it’s hard because you’ve got to be harsh and say “it wasn’t good enough”. They’re not used to hearing those things but it’s the only way they’re going to get better, and they all took it on board.
Moving on to discuss their ambitions for the next 12 months, Andrews added:
Captain Lauren Devine: “Doing it this way makes it more special; winning by one goal and going up … I’m glad it happened this way.”
Captain Lauren Devine, who just seconds after last year’s play-off success stated that a third promotion in four years was the goal, said:
‘I hate to be a pessimist, but after that first game I didn’t think it was going to be possible. I really thought we’d have to pull something out of the bag. We all had a bit of quiet time to ourselves and then we won by 15 goals against Dominoes, which was so pleasing and it gave us confidence.
‘After we beat Kent the first time in the league I thought we could do it, and we could even have gone straight up if we had just won one more game.
‘I said to the girls before those last five minutes, “you’ve got to want this more than anything you’ve ever wanted before”, and I think doing it this way makes it more special; winning by one goal and going up … I’m glad it happened this way.’
