After an almost unheard of 12-day break this season from playing the Newcastle Eagles return to the court and the Vertu Arena to take on Manchester Basketball in the SLB Championship on Friday night.

The game is just a few seats away from being another sold-out capacity crowd for head coach Marc Steutel’s men.

“There’s always two ways to look at a break. A Coach can say no we needed to play or yes; we needed the break”, said Steutel.

“But again, we’ve been very purposeful in what we’ve done. Really specific and continuing to get better with fine details at this stage of the season and continuing to trust each other.

“We had really productive practice days last week and have continued to ramp that up this week ahead of what is a very important game on Friday. We’re ready to go and do what we want to do on Friday so excited to get going and excited to play.”

Manchester sit second in the SLB with a 14-win 10 loss record, were beaten SLB Cup Finalists against London last Sunday and played in The ENBL quarter-final against Dinamo Zagreb on Wednesday winning the first leg 86-84. They have also beaten the Eagles twice this season.

Steutel knows they are a very good, solid dangerous team his side have to face.

“At this stage of the season there’s no surprises everyone know the strengths of the opposition”, the Eagles head coach added.

“They are really talented particularly in the backcourt with the three guards Johnson, Jones, and Smith. They go as they go and the pieces around them are really solid.”

“Nicholson has done a really good job defensively and his defensive impact numbers are impressive. Adetukesi has had a really positive campaign and Zak Irvin we know from the pal-off series last year, so they are a talented roster.”

“The play a lot of pick and roll so you’ve got to make sure you’re ready to defend. We have to defend one-on-one, and finish plays as they are a very good rebounding team.”

The Eagles themselves have been in good form recently. Four SLB Championship wins in a row were only ended with a defeat to the all-conquering London Lions on the road last time out. But Steutel is not perturbed about that result preferring to look at what went before.

“Against London in the first twenty minutes we weren’t good enough, but we were plus 5 in the second twenty”, Steutel continued.

“I’d say overall in our last 200 minutes of basketball we’ve played, 180 of them have been really positive. That’s the mindset we’ve had and what we want to keep building upon.”

“Manchester are having a good season and are competitive. But my focus is on my team preparing them to play against them and making sure we’re the best version of us. The strength of our League is evident in every game we play and Manchester are no different.”

“Manchester have had a tough schedule, but we’ve been there. My focus is always with my team and I’m really proud of how we’ve approached this period.”

The message from Steutel is clear and he remains locked in to ensuring that his team continue to move forward and accentuate on the positives as they prepare for the run-in to the play-off stage of the season.

“We’re looking forward to playing the last seven league games over the last five weeks of the season and doing all we can possibly do to be the best version of us. Excited to get going, excited to play in front of what is going to be a capacity crowd. We have to be at our best to beat them.”

At the time of writing, a final few tickets are still available on the box office, but anyone wanting to be a part of the home advantage crowd of sixth Eagles is encouraged to hurry because it’s set to be a sell-out.

As ever the game on Friday in the Vertu Arena tips-off at 7:30pm.