Newcastle Eagles are looking to bounce back to winning ways in the SLBW Championship at Sheffield on Saturday night. The face a Hatters side who have an identical 5 wins 2 defeats record as the Eagles in a crucial encounter.
Head Coach Chloe Gaynor’s side made a sensational start to league play this season with five straight victories but have hit a blip recently. They’ve lost their last top championship games and also crashed out of the SLBW Cup last weekend at Oaklands Wolves making it three loses in a row.
Gaynor started her preview by looking back to last weekend and that defeat in the Cup.
“Whilst disappointed with the outcome of last week’s game I thought that we did a decent job considering we were managing a number of injuries.”
“Alex (Campbell) had a very positive contribution offensively, particularly in the first quarter, and I’d like to commend her for the leap she has taken this year in becoming a key part of the team.”
“We spoke about what lost us that game and are aware that it is a matter of stacking days to becoming better and more connected as the season continues and hopefully this week will be a positive step.”
One of the positives to take out of the Oaklands game was the return to active action of star USA Jada Dapaa after a long injury lay-off. Dapaa’s time on court was restricted as she continues to recover but Gaynor is delighted to have her back amongst her roster choices.
“It’s great to have Jada on the floor again. She’s someone who you want to play with and you can see that from the impact she has in practice and the confidence she instill’s in her teammates.”
Certainly Dapaa can have an influence against Sheffield who were and still are one of the favourites to take SLB silverware this season. They are already in the Trophy Final next month at Birmingham. The Trophy group stage being the only time the two sides have met this season.
That was early season when the Hatters came to the Vertu Arena and dealt Newcastle a 61-91 reversal. That highlighted the talent within their squad and why Gaynor believes they will be a very tough opponent on Saturday despite them having the same record as the Eagles.
“Sheffield have been the favourites since the beginning of the season and of course we saw them in our first game of the season in the Trophy.”
“They have multiple threats both inside and out and they know how to use their individual skill sets well. I think the fact they’ve lost a couple of games shows that the standard of the league is improving and that every game is competitive.”
So, what are the keys to the game in Gaynor’s mind and what does she think her side need to do if they are to get a win and show that they have a big say in the Championship moving forward.
“We need to understand our scout and the personnel we are playing against and ultimately we need to get back to playing a controlled and disciplined game on both ends of the floor. Recent weeks we’ve not done that and it’s ultimately been our downfall.”
Tip-Off at the Canon Medical Arena in Sheffield is at 7:00pm for a game that neither side will want to lose. Fans can follow the action live on the Women’s SLB YouTube channel and LiveStats.
