Panthers open their account
SAFFERY PANTHERS are off and running in their new era after deservedly securing their maiden win at Division Two South level yesterday.
After watching his side clinically despatch of Shooting Stars 48-39 in front of a decent-sized Beau Sejour crowd, James Robert said his team’s home form will be key to their survival at this level over the winter.
Robert is in joint-charge alongside Verona Tomlin and although both were vocal in a second quarter when Shooting Stars started to assert some control, they otherwise enjoyed a relatively routine afternoon as they watched their side play excellently.
Indeed, the one disappointment that Robert had afterwards was that the final margin of victory was not greater than nine, which was achieved off the back of impressive first and third quarter returns.
‘If we had been firing on all cylinders then it would have been closer to a 20-goal margin and I would have hoped it would have been 15 or 16 based on that performance, but we will take nine,’ he said.
‘We tired a bit towards the end and that saw us play very narrow in the last quarter, so that fatigue probably had something to do with it, coupled with them [Shooting Stars] deploying their best defensive combination of the game at that time.
‘But in terms of the performance as a whole, we turned over their attacks very well and regularly, plus we were both clinical and efficient in getting the ball forward and also in the shooting circle, regardless of who our shooting combination was at any given time.'
More in Monday's Guernsey Press.
