Newcastle Eagles travel to the North West on Sunday night to take on Manchester Basketball in a crucial SLBW Championship clash. One look at the respective teams’ records shows how vital a win for either side will be.
Newcastle sit fourth in the standings on a six-win four loss record whilst Manchester are sixth on 4 wins and five losses. The two sides had mixed fortunes last time out just a week ago. Manchester reaching the SLB Cup Final with an impressive 78-72 semi-final victory over Oaklands Wolves.
Meanwhile the Eagles slipped to a 65-82 home loss in the Championship to Sheffield Hatters. However, as guard Sarah Birkett stepping into Head Coach Chloe Gaynor’s preview shoes explained there were positives in that loss that Newcastle took away.
“Sheffield was a tough loss. We had a lot of positives to take away from that game although the final score probably didn’t reflect the positives we did take away. I think it’s about how we finished that game and how we respond heading into Manchester.”
The Eagles did travel to Manchester earlier in the season and came away with a 79-68 victory in the Betty Codona SLB Trophy back on the 5th of October. Since then, Manchester have made changes and additions to their roster whilst Newcastle are still short-handed due to injuries.
Birkett who has a role on DAZN’s SLB game night coverage as a co-commentator and pundit is well aware of the dangers that Manchester possess.
“They’ll be flying high on confidence right now after making the Cup Final and their pick-ups are really strong for them. We have some defensive adjustments to make for their new players.”
“But I don’t think it’s anything we can’t handle and we just need to respond well defensively. We need it to keep it simple and stick to what makes us great.”
Birkett also alluded to the issues that her team have had as they’ve been unable to field a full roster in any game this season thus far. Despite that they are still showing undoubted ability and resilience.
“It’s tough knowing what we could look like at full strength and not having a full roster out there, but I think we’re continuing to respond well with what we do have and making the adjustments to the roster we do have.”
“As long as who we have that’s available responds in the way they need too and everyone contributes we can pull out a win. Our keys to the game have to be our defensive effort. We have to go in and do that.”
“All week we have been talking about the fact that we have all the pieces to the puzzle its just about how we apply them. It’s application of scout, application of defensive identity, execution of plays and if we do all that well for forty minutes, we’ll pull out a win.”
Birkett adds her playing support to her expert analysis for the team and will play a big part in helping her teammates as they look for what would be a significant win.
Tip-off at the National Basketball Performance Centre Manchester is at 18:00 on Sunday with the game free to watch live on YouTube.
