Monmouth Netball Club's first team played their fifth match of the season last week against Abertillery A, who they suffered heavy defeats to last season and with the team back to capacity captain Emma King was hopeful they would come away with a win.

The squad needed a confidence boost as they had won two and lost two of their first four games and sat mid-table in the league.

Monmouth did not have a great start to the game, a number of errors were made in the first quarter and Abertillery took quite a lead, so Monmouth made changes which had an immediate impact.

Lisa Small came on at GA off the bench with Emma King moving back into her natural centre court position and they started the second quarter much better.

Defending trio Kate Hapgood, Rebecca Price and new recruit Tracey Powell worked together as a strong unit to put pressure on the opposition's shooters and managed to turn over several balls to gain possession for Monmouth and at half-time they had reduced Abertillery's lead.

For full report see Beacon 9/11/11.