Nottingham Forest head coach Chelsea Pitman insists her team has yet to reach its peak potential this season, despite delivering a commanding 70-54 victory over the Birmingham Panthers in the Netball Super League.
South African international Rolene Streutker was the standout performer in a sold-out Worcester Arena, netting an impressive 43 goals and earning Player of the Match honors. The win propels Forest to within a single point of third-placed Manchester Thunder and just three points behind second-ranked London Pulse in the league standings.
"I still believe we have a lot more in the tank and we're not even close to our best at the moment, which is exciting for us," Pitman told Sky Sports. "We just need to make sure we are absolutely ruthless in our execution and just be relentless."
Forest's triumph over the Panthers snapped a frustrating four-game losing streak, following a promising start to the season that saw them secure three consecutive wins. Streutker attributed the turnaround to a refocused approach.
"We've been training really hard and it's just so nice having the results to show for it," Streutker said. "I think we've had a couple of shaky games before this one, so it's really good that we had a great score today. We went back to basics, and it paid off."
For the Panthers, Betsy Creak contributed 24 goals and Sophie Egbaran added 20, but head coach Sonia Mkoloma expressed disappointment with her team's performance during crucial phases of the match.
"We know it's not good enough and it's below our target," Mkoloma stated. "We were not clinical across the second and third quarters. That was disappointing because we put ourselves in a bit of a hole."
The result signals a potential resurgence for Nottingham Forest as they aim to climb the Super League table, with Pitman confident that her squad's best netball is still ahead of them.