Carnegie crush Northumbria

Joseph Fitzpatrick
Leeds Carnegie overcame a physical Team Northumbria side 45-37 on Sunday to earn their second win in the 2011 Fiat Netball Superleague season.

The weekend could have been twice as sweet for the Yorkshire team had a leaky roof not caused their game against Bury based, local rivals Northern Thunder to be abandoned on Saturday.

Leeds appeared determined to take the previous day's frustrations out on Northumbria, and they started the better of the two teams, gaining a one goal advantage going into the second quarter. However Northumbria finished a scrappy first-half- which saw both sides put in below par performances- on top by a single goal, 18-17.

Leeds struggled to feed shooters Joanne Walker and Rachel Shaw in the first two quarters, who only combined for a total of 25 attempts in comparison to the 33 enjoyed by the opposition. Co-coaches Anna Carter and Lisa Ferneyhough seemed to address this problem at the break, and in the second half Carnegie's centre-court fed their shooters much more diligently resulting in a combined total of 36 attempts, helping Leeds to a 32-27 lead going into the final 15 minutes.

There had been a strong physical undertone to the match throughout- the instigators donned dresses emblazoned with Team Northumbria- which was no more evident than when Carnegie's GA Rachel Shaw was taken out in mid air, landing on her head.

Leeds' youthful team could have perhaps been forgiven for faltering under such tactics, but instead they were undeterred and increased their lead in the fourth quarter to eight goals, earning a well deserved victory that maintains their fifth placed league position.