“We will get better,” Sam Bird’s Message After Season Opener defeat

By Paul Prenderville

Sam Bird is expecting a reaction from her London Pulse team in training after starting the 2024 Superleague season with a defeat to Manchester Thunder, with Liv Tchine underlining the desire to get back to the drawing board.

Slow starts to each quarter, and in the coach’s own words ‘a lack of connectivity’ impacted Saturday’s first game of the season as Pulse were unable to get any momentum going in a 56-40 defeat.

With three new recruits and two London Pulse Pathway athletes stepping up, there’s a slightly different look to the squad that claimed runners-up medals in 2023 after topping the regular season.

After just a couple of weeks as a full squad of 12 in preseason, Bird is already looking forward to getting back out on the training court to see how her team react through the week as attention immediately shifts to Surrey Storm in Round 2.

While Thunder are likely to be among the contenders again this season, Bird knows that in a number of ways Pulse were responsible for giving themselves a mountain to climb.

“We will look at our connectivity, we had a lot of players running away from the ball. It will be a case of coming back to our principles and getting our players to remember what those principles are.

“It was a big arena, a big occasion and probably a lot of pressure on us.We’ve put a lot of pressure on ourselves in terms of our ambition.  It’s back to a hard few sessions in training before we go again. We will get better.“

Sam Bird

As the players return to training, the leadership group will take added responsibility and one of the plus points from Saturday’s defeat was another impressive display from Goal Shooter Liv Tchine.

The England international put up 29 goals and the 23-year knows there will be work to do ahead to Saturday’s trip to Surrey Sports Park. Speaking to us after the game, she said:

“It was a little bit of a reality check for us, we have to remember last season was last season and this is all new and maybe we put too much pressure on ourselves

“We would have hoped for a better start, but I think every team we play against this season is going to be a fight regardless of who we are playing.

“At training on Tuesday, we will look at our errors. Some things were their pressure, but a lot of it was our errors and at times we just gave them the ball and that’s not good enough at his level.”

As ever the Pulse defence played their part with Funmi Fadoju’s 10 gains and 15 deflections topping the Superleague categories after round one, while in the mid-court Izzi Phillips introduction to the league could not have been more impressive.

The 17-year-old came on after the opening 15 minutes and forced a league-leading five interceptions to go with six gains – a sign that an experienced Thunder mid-court did not intimidate Pulse’s latest emerging Pathway star.

“She did really well, if you think about who she was up against and, I thought, stood out.”

“Her ability to contest the ball, her engine through the middle and her physicality for one so young is really exciting.

“It’s really nice to have a player come through our Pathway and do really well today.”

Next up we face Surrey Storm away on Saturday 24th in Round 2.