A 58-56 loss in front of another noisy Hatfield crowd was tough to take for Saracens Mavericks but head coach Camilla Buchanan was taking only the positives from the performance.

With seven minutes to go, the Mavericks trailed by seven in the Netball Superleague match at the Hertfordshire Sports Village, but they rallied in the final stages.

And with Jodie Gibson and Kira Rothwell leading the charge, they forced a couple of crucial turnovers to cut the gap to two.

Time was against them though and they could not find the extra gear to snatch the win.

However, Buchanan felt there was a marked improvement from a few week earlier.

"We’ve come on leaps and bounds," she said. "Despite the defeat, I’m so proud of the reset the group have had and how we attacked that match.

"There weren’t really any moments where we were able to fully grasp the game, but we knew it was going to go goal-for-goal and go down to the wire.

"On another day, we would have just edged that one.

“There were times when we responded tactically really well, but there were still a few moments that we can be sharper on going forward.

"But every week, we’ve shown improvement and with the trajectory we’re on, I know we will keep going from strength-to-strength."