After Friday’s first leg SLB playoff quarter-final in the Vertu Arena, Newcastle Eagles trail by 18-points following their 90-72 loss against London Lions. On the face of it a seemingly impossible task awaits them at Crystal Palace on Sunday night at 7:00pm.

Eagles though will travel with heart and desire to at least give a full account of themselves against the UK’s best top-flight basketball team. Certainly, if they show the same level of application and commitment on Sunday as they did on Friday no-one will be disappointed with the level of display.

Head Coach Marc Steutel began his preview of the game by giving his post-game thoughts from Friday’s defeat referring in particular to being so short-handed having no Ray’Sean Taylor, Maceo Jack, Deion Hammond of Terrell Burden to call upon through injury.

“I asked for character from the players that were available to play. In all my years in basketball at all the levels I’ve been involved with I’ve never experience a week like I and we had leading into this game.”

“We needed to use it as a chance to reframe our thoughts what we could learn and what we could take from it and we used the character word a lot. In that first quarter we were not able to get as any rebounds as we would like and gave them second chance shots.”

“We had three quarters where we were within three points or less. I’m not one for morale victories. We’re judge on winning and losing. But I bring it back to that character word that I asked for from the group.”

“I was exceptionally proud of how we competed how we played. For forty minutes we didn’t stop. The scoreboard says what it says but we were disruptive at times. Defensively we were good in a lot of areas other than finishing the boards.”

“Offensively we’ve been playing a certain way with shot creation from Mitch Clarke, Ray’Sean and Terrell. But there was a lot of responsibility on Mitch without the other two. That was tough when you’re going against the best defensive team in the League.”

“We still got a lot of solid looks, and we kept fighting and we kept chipping away. That second quarter they were +16 but for the other quarters to be so close shows our fight. They are a great team a EuroCup team and have talent 1 through to 16.”

Eagles now have to somehow regroup and go again in London on Sunday looking to pull off what would be the most astonishing comeback and turnaround possibly ever against this all-conquering London side.

“We know the task. They’ve won three things for a reason this year. They have a significant advantage going into Sunday but the situation and context matter. I’m proud of the character we showed as a group on Friday.”

“We’ve got to find a way to physically recover and battle for forty minutes on Sunday. I hope I’ve earned enough credibility and enough trust that I’m honest and when I’m not happy, I’ll explain that. We have a loss to the League Champions which probably puts them one foot into the semifinals.”

“But we’ll go and battle on Sunday. I know it’s different on the road. Our guys will hopefully feel the love and support from Friday.”

“If that’s the last time we play basketball in front of our fans this year with this group I hope they’re walking out of the building saying we fought for every second we fought for every moment and we played with character. That’s what we have to do again on Sunday.”

Fans can watch the game live for free on DAZN with tip-off in London at 7pm.