Lanarkshire ladies are leading the way
Strathclyde Sirens stars aiming high for Superleague season
ANDY MCGILVRAY
Strathclyde Sirens started their 2020 season on Saturday – and a host of Lanarkshire ladies are at the forefront of their challenge in the National Superleague.
Niamh McCall from Strathaven, Bethan Goodwin from Cambuslang, Emily Nicholl from Biggar and East Kilbride’s Lynsey Gallagher are among the local stars in the team, with EK’s Nicola McCleery and Kelly Boyle of Coatbridge also part of their line-up.
The Glasgow side, who play home games at the Emirates Arena, are the only semi-professional netball team in Scotland and play in the Vitality Netball Superleague against opponents with colourful names like Manchester Thunder and Saracens Mavericks.
Sirens played the first of 19 matches this season against London Pulse on Saturday, falling to a narrow 53-51 defeat.
The big season opener featured all 10 teams at the Arena Birmingham for the largest ever for a one-day event in UK netball history.
Last season the Sirens finished second from bottom in the table and, under the command of new head coach Lesley MacDonald and Claire Maxwell, who is taking on a dual role as assistant coach/player, they are desperate to improve on their record of three wins from 18 games.
The team has strengthened with the likes of Australian centre Gia Abnernethy returning for a second spell and South African goal defence Zanele Vimbela signing up.
Gallagher, 27, who has represented Scotland at two Commonwealth Games in Glasgow 2014 and Gold Coast 2018, said: “It will be a huge season.
“We’re looking to improve on where we finished the last time, it’s a new team with some fresh faces in there, so it will be nice to come together and start putting what we’ve put out on the training court into competition.”
Goal attack/goal shooter Goodwin will be a key player once again as she returns for a fourth season.
She said: “We really want to push on from last season, show how much we’ve progressed and how the new girls that have joined have impacted the team in a positive way.”
Sirens haven’t set any major targets for the campaign as they will be competing against full-time teams with some top international talent.
Nicholl, who plays in defence, said: “There’s not too much pressure, let’s just see what we can do.
“I think what is really good this season is that we have a new coach, new mentality.
”It’s not about putting targets on our backs, we just want to go out there and push ourselves to be the best that we can be.
”This is my fourth season with the Sirens, so I’ve been there right from the start, so it’s really exciting to be a part of it again.”
McCall, 19, was the first player born in the 2000s to receive a senior cap, which came against Northern Ireland in 2016.
She said: “It’s an important season, 100 per cent.
“Last season we didn’t perform the way we wanted to, so we have definitely set some goals and we definitely want to hit them this year.”
Sirens continue their campaign on Saturday away to Loughborough Lightning. The action starts at 7pm.