Bristol City Home, 1sts
13-7 Joey Niblett (4), Remco Broekhuis (4), Angharad Morgan (2), Lee O’Sullivan (2), Chris Gubby (1), Helen Gubby, Rachel Knight, Sian Hunt
As in the previous season, Bristol City had lost early on to Dragons and then won every match thereafter, leaving Dragons needing to beat them again in order to retain the title. A draw or even a defeat could still allow Dragons to sneak the league, but they’d be relying on a sequence of other results going their way. Both sides were at full strength, with Bristol City having the confidence of victories in their last 6 matches, but knowing that they were yet to beat Dragons in 3 previous meetings.
As it happened, despite falling behind early and having a small wobble when Bristol City pulled the score back to 9-6 in the second half, Dragons were always in control of the match. As usual they were the strongest team around the basket, with Lee’s excellent post technique combining with Remco and Rachel’s strength while Joey proved the main beneficiary in the first half. Even more impressive was the defensive strength shown by the team, who supplemented tight marking with regular interceptions. With the exception of the excellent Kristina van Eker who posed a consistent threat for the visitors, not one Bristol player managed to score from open play, and only 4 penalties kept them in touch. Despite that they stuck to their guns defensively, and goalscoring was never easy for the Dragons, but enough shots did drop for the eventual victory to be comfortable.
While postponements meant that Bristol City still had 2 games in hand, their defeat meant that even winning both of those would not be sufficient to overhaul Dragons given the Cardiff teams superior head-to-head record, so Dragons were able to celebrate retaining the title as soon as the final whistle blew.
Thanks to Terry for reffing, and to Bristol for coming over so early on a Saturday morning.