Gloucester City Queens head coach, Jay Marriott, believes his side’s chances of getting to the play-offs have been heavily hampered by injuries.
Throughout this season, the Queens have had to try and remain competitive without the services of star guard Maura Fitzpatrick, which has been tough enough, but now the injury list is getting bigger.
Marriott stated, “We have lost a fair few troopers, which is obviously going to affect our ability and performance, but it is not going to change the fight with which we are going to try and attack these games”.
As it’s #stpatricksday let’s take time to say how much we miss our 🇮🇪 international @maurafitzz and wish her a speedy recovery 👑🏀
— Gloucester City Queens (@GlosCityQueens) March 17, 2022
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📸 @jssportphoto
.#britishbasketball #alwaysaqueen pic.twitter.com/fADYmWNVMm
He then confirmed that for this weekend’s game against Oaklands Wolves, they would also be without Shanice Turner and Bianca Osas-Maxwell through injury and Molly James due to COVID protocols:
“This makes us a little bit light going into a weekend where we would have ideally liked to be a bit deeper”.
“The loss of Bianca has been really tough, when she is on her game, she can be the catalyst for the team, losing Shanice has also been devastating, she is easily our best defensive player”.
QUEEN of the week @baller_bm also makes the @wbblofficial All-Star 5️⃣ 👑🇬🇧🏀
— Gloucester City Queens (@GlosCityQueens) January 25, 2022
.#britishbasketball #ARISE #gloucestersport pic.twitter.com/JLnsXAnimj
At the moment it is vital that the Queens stick together through this challenging phase and push on despite not looking likely to get a play-off spot:
“Just one too many injuries, we dropped into a little bit of a depression about that (not making the playoffs)”
“Maybe we felt a little bit robbed because of the injuries, but we need to draw a line under that”.
Ultimately, Marriott is proud of the “mentality” his players are showing and is encouraging them to “look towards the future”.
Queens and Wolves are scheduled to tip-off at 4.30pm at Oxstalls Sports Park on Sunday 26th March.
