MATCH PREVIEW | Loughborough Lightning vs Saracens Mavericks (NSL Rd 10)

Captain Jodie Gibson has challenged her side to continue their positive development after running London Pulse close on Monday night.

After nearly upsetting their local rivals, Gibson believes that there is much more to come from her side.

“We’re really proud of the performance against Pulse. After the Wembley match, we wanted to prove to ourselves that we’re better than our recent performances. We had an incredible training week and we wanted to go out there and be consistent for the full match. We’ve talked about it for a while, but we need to be more consistent to win games. It wasn’t perfect against Pulse, but we showed belief from the last minute to the end. It’s bittersweet as it’s a game we could have and should have won, but the resilience and determination from the group was incredible. It’s the most together we’ve looked and felt on the court.”

Friday’s match marks the beginning of the second half of the league season and Gibson highlighted that sides would now have a measure of each other in the reverse fixtures.

“We’re at the halfway point now. I love this part of the season where we’ve now played everybody. We know and we can identify parts in matches where we’ve done well and where we can improve. It’s a chance to right some wrongs and compete against the likes of Lightning who are a hard team to break down. They are at the top of the table because they are so formidable. For us, it’s about how we can break down a team and compete until the very last minute.”

Lightning handed Mavericks a defeat at HSV earlier in the season, but Gibson believes that with a few tactical tweaks after Monday’s clash with Pulse, her side can put in another improved showing.

“It's such a short turnaround. It means that the training week looks very different to normal, but it’s about how we maximise the time on court and we’re clear in our structures. We want to capitalise on our strengths. Tactically there’ll be things we need to tweak from Pulse, but both they and Loughborough are quite similar. Lightning have Mary Cholhok, who is a holding shooter, so tactically we know what we’re going to have to adapt to up against her. We need to maximise our recovery, but this is performance sport, so it’s a challenge, but it’s one we’re really looking forward to.”