Newcastle Eagles return to Super League Basketball (SLB) Championship action this Friday night in the Vertu Arena against Manchester Basketball.

It’s been two weeks since the Eagles produced an excellent 91 – 67 win over Caledonia Gladiators at home to move to a two wins one loss record.

Having to wait a fortnight to follow-up that performance having had no game last weekend has been a source of concern for Eagles head coach Marc Steutel.

“The fixture schedule is a point of contention across the League. You look at the disparity of the games played compared with other European leagues and it’s frustrating. We would have liked to have played last weekend,” said Steutel.

“We’re still early in our season, early in our group and we want to continue to play. Frustrating but we’ve just had to roll with what we can. We’ve reviewed the Caledonia performance and then thought about how we can continue to get better with our current group.”

Looking back at the performance against the Gladiators, it has been an encouraging start to the 2026/27 SLB season as the Eagles play-caller agreed.

“We applied ourselves well to the game plan against Caledonia. The guys were really connected defensively and were positive across 40 minutes,” added Steutel.

“We’ve had two defensive performances at home back-to-back that have been really solid as well as many areas in the London loss away.”

“We have to continue to look forward and make sure we get better every day. We’ve practised hard tried to make sure the guys stay healthy, stay fresh, still continue to build on our DNA and our concepts whilst getting the balance right on improving.”

That is going to be an important aspect and something that Steutel and his team will need to concentrate on as the schedule is about to get very busy indeed.

“We’re about to enter three double-header weekends so six games in the next three weekends after not playing for two weeks which is interesting again. But our focus as always is on the first team in front of us which is Manchester,” the head coach continued”

“If teams start looking past the challenge in front of you that’s where teams can slip up so our focus will be Manchester.”

Manchester come into the game still active in the FIBA Euro Cup after going out of the Basketball Champions League qualifiers. They only though have one win and three losses so far in the SLB. Plus, news came through that Head Coach Matt Otten left the Club on Wednesday.

“Manchester are a talented team with a good roster. We have to make sure we stick to our ideas we stick to our principles. We need to make sure we do that in good moments and tough moments,” coach Steutel concluded.

“If we do that then we can be successful with the way the group have bought in and played together so far.

“We’re excited to play for sure. The guys are desperate to play We’re hopeful we get another incredible home support like we’ve had over the last two games and continue to build some momentum.”

Everything points to another big game in front of a packed Vertu Arena on Friday night with the tip-off at the usual time of 7:30pm.

Tickets have been selling fast and limited seats are available on the box office.