Netball Super League: Nottingham Forest in play-offs as Pavlova pair get England calls

In 2022, aged 18, Pechova was nominated for the BBC’s Young Sports Personality of the Year award and recognised as one of England’s brightest prospects.

Her first senior cap followed in 2023 against New Zealand. Then in 2024, having earned a scholarship with Bath University, Team Bath were disbanded as part of a major Netball Super League restructure.

Pechova – just like Pavelin, who was also a Bath player – had no time to mope. Instead, she moved her life to Nottingham to join newly established Forest.

For Pechova, the unexpected disruption meant she had to commute between Nottingham and Bath – a 300-mile round trip – to keep up with her sports management degree.

Life became challenging. In 2025, she was dropped from the Roses senior programme and then she was not selected initially for the Youth World Cup.

“It was quite a big shock because I thought I’d had a good season in Super League,” Pechova told BBC Sport.

This scenario left Pechova needing support. It came in spades from Chelsea Pitman, Nottingham Forest’s coach, who as a player won Commonwealth Games gold with England in 2018. Pitman could see how Pechova’s life had been upended.

“She was devastated. Rightly so,” said Pitman.

The Forest coach was exactly the right person to approach.

“When I got dropped from the England squad, the first thing I did was message Chelsea. She picked me up straight away, we got a coffee and went on a walk,” Pechova remembers.

Pitman’s coaching philosophy follows a strong belief in player development. Together they had to find a way to get Pechova back in the Roses fold.

“We looked at what she could do in her high performance behaviours and that consistency piece – what does England need to see from her?” said Pitman.

“And she has just attacked it. She’s turning up to every session to put her best foot forward. She is extremely resilient. She wants to watch videos; she wants to be better.”