Head Coach Chloe Gaynor takes her Newcastle Eagles to Manchester today. It’s a vital Betty Cordona SLB Trophy match-up for both sides that promises to be an intriguing game which neither side can afford to lose if they want to progress in the competition.
Manchester Basketball have already lost both the opening games to Caledonia and a narrow loss at Sheffield last weekend. The Eagles lost heavily to the Sharks but bounced back well to take a win on the road in Nottingham despite off-court issues.
Should Gaynor and her players get over the line later today then they will be in a great position to qualify for the semi-finals. Manchester with a loss totally out of that equation will be desperate to revive any chance they have.
As Gaynor previewed the game she started by giving a little insight into the state of her roster going into the game.
“We’ve picked up a few niggles in practice and our visa issues are still not resolved. There will be a roster change this week to accommodate those issues.”
“We have no long term injuries but it’s important that we manage them the correct way early in the season to avoid them becoming long term problems.”
Sensible thoughts and they show Gaynor and her players mentality to continue on the good work they showed at Nottingham last week in their 62 – 56 where they led from first buzzer to last. A game where Gaynor learned more about her squad.
“I was most pleased with the way we attacked the game at the start. We’ve gotten off to great starts in all our games, now it’s time to find a way to continue that momentum. I was least pleased with our offensive flow.”
“Whilst we made improvements on the Sheffield game, we have to find more flow to our team basketball, that will develop over the course of the season obviously but we have to be purposeful in pursuing that.”
Manchester have, despite those two defeats, put together a very strong looking side for the 2025/26 SLB season and have a lot of firepower in their midst. The likes of Frannie Hottinger and Maaja Bratka have made strong individual starts.
Jenna Mastelonne and Tiarra East look very good supporting players and young British forward Irene Oboavwoduo is a welcome addition to their roster as well as the SLB. Gaynor knows they have a tough roster to deal with today.
“Manchester do have a competitive roster and have depth. Them pushing Sheffield shows that you can’t take for granted any results and shows the calibre of team Manchester are. We’ll have to be on our A game.”
“For us, it’s about developing and being disciplined defensively and finding more flow on offense… everything else will then take care of itself.”
The game at the National Basketball Performance Centre Manchester is part of a double-header and tips-off at 6:15pm right after Manchester’s men take on Leicester Riders in the SLB Championship.
