Keenan Confident Northumbria Can Turn Corner

Tuaine Keenan has promised Team Northumbria will be ready to silence the Sirens on Monday night despite a tough start to the club’s Netball Superleague season.

TN have lost three straight games - losing out to joint league leaders Wasps and Surrey in their last two matches.

And the news that captain Katarina Cooper will miss the remainder of the season with an ACL injury is another blow to the Sport Central club.

But Keenan insisted: “We’re going back to our game plan and working on what we want to achieve this season.

“We worked hard against Surrey to make it a bit closer at half-time but then I think we just let our performance slip a little bit.

“We lacked consistency and didn’t treasure our possession. We got enough turnovers but unfortunately we just didn’t score off them. 

“We can only really blame ourselves for what we did on court. We didn’t really stick to our game plan. They were really tough and in the end they just lasted a lot longer than we did.

“I think we need to learn how to play on despite how physical the game might be - we handled it well in patches but when we didn’t when they got on top of us.

“Defensively I think we did some good stuff - especially dealing with Megan Craig - so I was pleased with the performance in some ways but not so happy with the end result.”

Kiwi stopper Keenan cut a frustrated figure last time out against a Surrey side boasting 6ft 10in shooter Craig in their starting seven.

But the determined defender and team-mate Leah Kennedy emerged with most of the credit from a patchy team performance.

And one of Superleague’s most consistent defensive pairings will be out to nullify the Sirens’ attack on Monday.

TN captain Cooper - who will remain on Tyneside - shared in her team-mates’ disappointment but remains confident her team will bounce back.

“I thought in the first half against Storm were really in the game,” said Cooper. “We looked good for a lot of the third quarter but unfortunately they pulled away.

“In the last quarter they seemed to find a second wind and they obviously really wanted to finish the game off.

“I think Surrey performed really well but we have to go back to the drawing board once again and come up with a plan of how we’re going to win our next game.

“We know what we need to do. Now we’ve just got to get there and put the hard work in in training.”