Netball Superleague: Thunder and Lightning still unbeaten

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Team Bath v Manchester ThunderThunder have won all of their games so far this season

Manchester Thunder continued to impress in the Netball Superleague with a dramatic 57-53 victory over Team Bath, who have dropped out of the top four.

Thunder, who remain unbeaten this season, had not beaten Bath since 2018.

Elsewhere, reigning champions Loughborough Lightning overcame Saracens Mavericks in a resounding 71-47 victory

London Pulse and Strathclyde Sirens also secured wins.

Thunder trailed Bath - who are still without Roses captain Serena Guthrie - by three goals going into the final quarter, after a stellar defensive performance by Layla Guscoth and Phumza Maweni kept Malawi shooter Joyce Mvula quiet.

But after head coach Karen Greig switched Eleanor Cardwell to goal shooter and fellow Rose Natalie Metcalf to goal attack, the pair helped to turn a 42-39 deficit into a 49-42 lead after just five minutes.

Greig told Sky Sports: "We started each quarter really well, we came out of the blocks and punished them, we just couldn't quite maintain it throughout the 15 minutes. That last quarter showed real character for us. I think we went 10-0 up and that is when we started turning the screw.

"It was tough in there, very physical, there were a few bodies hitting the floor. Nat [Metcalf] adds a bit of speed and Ellie [Cardwell] had a great game once she dropped back into that goal shooter position. It's great that we've got that element that we can play around with the shooting circle depending what defence we come up against."

Bath head coach Anna Stembridge said she was "disappointed" with her team's inability to hold on to their lead - with consistency a struggle for the Somerset-based side this season, having experienced previous swings in momentum against Storm, Stars and Pulse.

"It's a hard one to articulate - we know Thunder have the ability to be very clinical and we had been great for at least three quarters of the game but to give them a run of what we did, it's not OK," she added.

"We stopped doing things that had worked well for us - we know what it's like to play against Thunder so we expect them to come out hard and we expect them to be tenacious and we just stopped.

"To allow it to go from three goals up to being down and they went on a run of seven or eight, not OK. We can't allow ourselves to do that."

Lightning thrashed Mavericks for their fifth consecutive win. The London side never got going as Lightning's prolific shooter Mary Cholhok punished them with her 58 goals.

Pulse were clinical in a 64-35 victory over Severn Stars while Sirens edged out Surrey Storm 59-57 in a tight game to bag their first home win of the season.

Leeds Rhinos face Wasps on Sunday and Stars play again on Monday against a winless Celtic Dragons.

Fixtures & results

Round six

Friday, 4 March

Team Bath 53-57 Manchester Thunder

Saturday, 5 March

London Pulse 64-35 Severn Stars

Strathclyde Sirens 59-57 Surrey Storm

Loughborough Lightning 71-47 Saracens Mavericks

Sunday, 6 March

Leeds Rhinos v Wasps

Monday, 7 March

Severn Stars v Celtic Dragons

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