ANNA Stembridge was pleased to see her players show character and grit as Team Bath Netball began the second half of the Vitality Superleague season with a hard-earned 51-34 victory over Celtic Dragons.

Welsh franchise Dragons are yet to win a game this year but belied that status with a fantastic performance at London’s Copper Box Arena and forced some uncharacteristically lax shooting from the Blue & Gold to lead 18-17 at half-time.

That provided the spark for Team Bath to step up a gear during a clinical third quarter and they were finally able to put some clear ground between themselves and Dragons, opening up a 33-25 advantage which they built on during the final period to secure three more points.

All 12 players in the match-day squad got some court time too and Team Bath head coach Stembridge said: “We had to grind that win out and credit to Dragons, they had obviously done their homework. We’ve said this half of the season is going to be harder and ultimately we had to show character and grit today.

“Dragons came out hard and put us under a lot of pressure. We actually had more shots at goal than them [in the second quarter] but weren’t sinking them, which is uncharacteristic for us.”

Goal-shooter Kim Borger provided the accuracy during the all-important third quarter, earning herself the Player of the Match award, and Stembridge said: “Kim played a big role in terms of the influence we needed, her calmness and tactically how we wanted to open up that shooting circle.”

Borger added: “I think we just went back to what works well for us and that’s our ball speed, our connections and being able to have that quick transition from defence. We were getting the turnover but we just weren’t cementing it down the court, so we really tried to focus on that.

“Dragons had a fantastic game, that’s probably the best I’ve seen them play and I really hope that’s how they continue to go forward. For us it’s a tough road ahead but I’m glad we had that battle.”