HELENSBURGH netball club G84’s Under-15 side, Pressure, faced the biggest match of their playing careers thus far recently as they took to the court in the Scottish Youth Cup Final — narrowly losing out to Avon 30-27.

The young side faced stiff opposition from the South Lanarkshire outfit in the under-15 final, hosted at the Alistair McCoist Sports Centre in East Kilbride.

The two teams had never met before but the coaches and players knew that this would be their toughest game to date with Avon also having players representing Netball Scotland’s Development Centres. However, despite their preparations, Pressure struggled to bring the ball up the court to their shooters, Abbie Murray and Eleanor Young. Numerous unforced errors from all players allowed Avon to capitalise on this and they took the first quarter 9-2. Going into the second quarter, Lydia Porter-Smith was brought on to GK with Anne Young out to WD. The coaches had been clear with every player, but especially the attacking unit of Mhairi Cromar (C) and Mackenzie Serpell (WA), that they could not afford to give away any more ball to Avon. Again, Pressure struggled to pass beyond the defensive arms of the Avon players allowing them to extend their lead to 19 goals to 6.

The coaches did not sugar coat things for the girls during the half-time talk, being clear that their performance so far was not acceptable and that they had trained too hard all year to throw the game away. Grace Laverty was brought back onto WD for the third quarter and Anne Young back to GK.

It was clear from the first whistle of the half that G84 had finally found their form. They took the first five goals of the quarter leaving Avon a little stunned. Eleanor Young (GA) worked tirelessly in the midcourt to ensure that there was always clear option for the feeders.

The defensive trio of Anne Young, Rona Wilson (GD) and Grace Laverty (WD) definitely stepped up their game and successfully disrupted the Avon attack, allowing the shooters to pull back some much needed goals.

Pressure won the third quarter 9-4 leaving Avon with an eight goal advantage going into the final quarter.

No changes were made going into the final quarter with the coaches asking the players to continue in the good form that they had found. G84 continued to pressurise the Avon attack and capitalised from numerous tip and interceptions.

Pressure came within one goal with two minutes left on the clock, but a combination of errors meant that Avon were able to extent their lead back to three goals with the final score ending 27-30 to Avon.

The team were understandably gutted with this result and had they played the full match with their second half form then the game was definitely theirs for the taking.

Despite their first loss of the season the girls should be incredibly proud of their achievements and will most definitely learn and move on from this experience and second best team in the country is a fantastic achievement for a small town.

Pressure: Mackenzie Serpell (C), Anne Young (VC), Abbie Murray, Eilidh Mcnaughton, Eleanor Young, Grace Laverty, Kate Addo, Lydia Porter-Smith, Mhairi Cromar, Rachel Moore and Rona Wilson.

The club would like to thanks sponsors Lodge on Loch Lomond and LCS Engineering. G84 provide training and playing opportunities for children aged 5 to 16 years old. If you are interested in your child joining the club then please feel free to drop us an email g84_junior_netball@hotmail.co.uk or contact Geraldine on 07515852874.