Defiant captain insists Panthers will bounce back
NENA COPPERWAITE has vowed that Saffery Panthers will bounce back immediately after their relegation from Division Two South was confirmed yesterday.
On a day where the Guernsey side had to win to keep alive their slim hopes of extending their stay at this level beyond one season, they never looked like doing so in a heavily-delayed contest at St Sampson’s High.
Even though it was visiting SAS who had spent much of the day sat on a plane playing a waiting game, it was they who rose to the late-afternoon task more effectively and led from start to finish to win 46-33.
Panthers knew that their fate was up long before the final whistle of this frenetic but error-strewn showdown, but that did not stop captain Copperwaite from cutting a defiant figure post-match.
‘Yes, we will definitely come straight back up,’ she said.
‘Results aside, I wouldn’t swap this season at all because we needed better competition for a year and we have come on as a team because of it - we are a better side for playing in Division Two this season.
‘But today sums up our season. Steph [Batiste] had to pull out at the last minute through illness, Ella [Staples] has gone and done herself a nasty injury, the flights are late, it has been like that every game this season.
‘It is frustrating but I was really pleased with the girls who stepped up today and out of position because the seven today wasn’t our usual seven and they did really, really well so I am pleased with the efforts.
‘I couldn’t have asked for any more.’
More in Monday's Guernsey Press.
