Bristol City Away, 1sts
17-11 Joey Niblett (5), Chris Gubby (4), Remco Broekhuis (3), Sian Hunt (2), Lee o’Sullivan (2), Angharad Morgan (1), Helen Gubby, Rachel Knight.
After a long close season, Dragons were raring to start the season well except Josh, who turned up 45 minutes late. The opposition couldnt have been tougher, as last year the two clubs finished with an identical points tally, with only the head to head results handing the league to the Dragons.
Bristol had strengthened their team from last year, poaching Kristina from Cardiff City as well as adding the current league female MVP, Rachael Edwards; but Dragons had also brought in key players.
Dragons started well, Lee slotting home a penalty before Siān scored from distance. But after a couple of impressive spells of passing, lack of match practice showed as several balls went astray and Bristol City moved 5-4 ahead. Lees running in shot levelled it, before Dragons landed a barrage of long shots, Joey, Remco, Chris and Siān all netting from range. Bristol got one back, but it was 9-6 at half-time.
As last year, Dragons girls proved very difficult to score against, restricting an experienced Bristol quartet to 3 goals all game, and that provided the foundation for Dragons to extend their league into the second half. At one end, Remcos dominance at the post left Joey free to sink shots on a regular basis, while at the other Lee and Angharad consistently made chances, and they were unlucky not to finish with several goals each. Chris did score from under the basket from Siāns sharp pass and then added another from near halfway to make the game safe, and a late rally by Bristol only served to render the scoreline respectable. For the first game of the season, a 17-11 victory away against such strong and experienced opponents is a great achievement.