I feel like I'm repeating myself here a bit, but I entered tonight's game pretty confident, having seen the tactics and their lineup. I don't think I could have hoped for better, as I said in chat tonight, if I could have chosen an offence to face it would have been motion.
I felt we had a distinct advantage outside going into the game, their guards' game shape wasn't as good as ours, and their inside players looked good. I'd named a lineup with three guards, all with NT standard OD and their starting SF tonight was a PF (yes I'm aware NT PFs can be good SFs before anyone states the obvious) so again, it looked in our favour. They even tried to predict our tactics and got it half wrong.
However, as seems to be a trend lately, the game didn't go as expected. It was tight throughout, similar to last week where we couldn't get ourselves a lead. Gascoigne couldn't seem to take advantage, Barker didn't shoot as I'd expect him to in run and gun and the Austrians played well throughout.
We gained a small edge in the third, which we managed to actually grow during the fourth. And in the end we managed a quite respectable scoreline.
Our PD isn't quite what I'd want. Obviously neither is the win/loss record but for now I'm more concerned with PD.
At least we're at home next week. The following week we're away to Slovenia, who tonight beat Poland at home. We'll need to play better then.