Newcastle Eagles will be looking to bounce back to winning ways in the Women’s Super League Basketball (SLB) when they take on the Sheffield Hatters in the Vertu Arena on Saturday night.

The Eagles lost their 100% record to Caledonia last Sunday on the road going down 104 – 82.

“There were definitely some encouraging signs last week – we showed when we play with pace and composure that we can be a real offensive threat,” said head coach Chloe Gaynor.

“As well as this, when we were on point with our defensive identity and philosophies, we caused them problems – it’s just about making this consistent rather than the spells we are seeing currently.”

They face a Sheffield side that they lost to in pre-season but who after their dominance last season winning all four SLB titles have already lost two games this season.

Gaynor knows a win over Sheffield would be a real statement of where her side could go to this year and knows Saturday is a game she would really like to put in the W column.

The Eagles coach continued: “We knew coming in to this season that the league was going to be more competitive across the board, and we have seen that with many different results over the first 3 weeks of the season.

“There are less perceived upsets that could happen and more games that really could go either way. Sheffield have been very dominant in the league in the last few seasons, obviously they won everything last year.”

“Being able to beat them would most definitely aid us in pursuit of challenging for the highest seed possible and would be a springboard for us to see what we can do when we’re playing the way we should be.”

Gaynor side’s ran Hatters close in that pre-season game only going down 74 – 78 in a very close competitive game. But pre-season is one thing, and the reality of a competitive regular season is different.

“Preseason games are hard to judge by because there are so many variables and every team, and also the individuals within the team, are at different parts of their journey,” the Eagles former player turned coach added.

“Playing them in pre-season did allow us to see some individual tendencies of players and we got to see where our strengths and weaknesses were against them at the time.

“But there has been about a month of basketball since then and both teams will have developed from that point.

“Consistency is key. This one is truly about us and how much we can take from what we have done well the last couple of weeks and perform that more consistently, whilst also minimizing where we haven’t been good.

“We need to be playing to our identity for 40 mins, which we haven’t been able to yet this season, but there are promising signs that we want to be building on to get there.

A really interesting and intriguing contest lies ahead and one that will give Gaynor and her side a good barometer on which to judge themselves. Tip-off on Saturday night in the Vertu Arena is at 7:30pm.

Tickets are available from the box office.