Monmouth Netball Club went into their third game of the season last weekend wanting a win after being defeated in their first two games after coming up against tough opposition.

Captain Emma King knew that they could take the win having beaten Blackwood A twice last season but they were short a key player as Lisa Small was out due to injury and Becky Hoggins couldn't make the game due to work commitments. This meant that they had a just seven players with no substitute.

The game started with Monmouth taking an early lead as Blackwood took a while to get their heads into the game, the starting seven for Monmouth worked hard to gel as a unit with shooters Nina Booker and Holly Hall taking advantage of all opportunities of shots at goal and Monmouth led at the end of first quarter 9 - 7.

The second quarter saw Blackwood come alive and stepped up the level of their play with Monmouth defensive trio of Mandy Davies, Vanessa Ball and Laura Griffiths having to work hard and continuously apply pressure to the Blackwood attack to make it hard for them to feed their shooters.

At half time the score was 17 - 16 with Monmouth just having the edge. The game was played with high intensity and was very physical with players getting tired but with no options to bring on fresh legs Monmouth had to dig deep.

Kali Jade Cross and Emma King worked hard bringing the ball from defence to attack both feeding shooters Booker and Hall with some perfect passes using the space under the post, they communicated well and created space for each other to allow strong attacking passages of play to be made.

Taking the court for the final quarter Monmouth knew they had to up their game as the score was equal at 23 goals each with both teams wanting their first win of the season, the game continued to be very physical across the entire court and Monmouth knew they had to keep calm to win the game.

They started the fourth quarter with possession and worked hard to take the ball to goal capitalising on any mistakes Blackwood made, they kept possession when they needed to and looked after the ball with minimal unforced errors when it mattered most.

The final score of the game was 32 - 30 to Monmouth, their first win of the season.

Player Of The Match and Player's Player was Holly Hall, Monmouth face Risca A is the next match.