"BASIC ERRORS OVERSHADOWED THE GREAT STUFF" SAYS MAYES

11 April 2012, Harriet Millard

England Netball Coach Anna Mayes was disappointed with some areas of her team's performance last night at the LG Arena in Birmingham against world number nine Barbados.

Despite beating the visitors with a comfortable 72 – 41 win in the first test of the series, Mayes believes that success is in performance not result, "It's really important that we don't just measure success on the score line."

Mayes praised WD debutante Laura Malcolm for her Man of the Match display in front of the crowd, saying " she did her job and stuck to task".

"I think it was evident when we didn't stick to task, and when we didn't sight the back defender which is something we'd spoken about in training and every quarter.

"So that for me was disappointing, basic errors and same message but not acting on it quicker was disappointing."

Looking ahead to the next two games, Mayes confirmed new faces will be seen in the red and white.

"It's really important that England is brave in the next couple of years to ensure that we have got greater depth and breadth in terms of international exposure. So the 12 will be different. So it will be interesting to see again what the different combinations bring to the court.

"I'm really excited about some of the youngsters and giving some of the inexperienced players a bit of opportunity because they're biting at the bit in training.

"I think the patches in terms of some of the magical movements at both ends and through court – yes that was great but for me the basic errors overshadowed the great stuff and that's very disappointing."

England play Barbados twice more – in Bath on Thursday and Guildford on Saturday.