Head Coach Chloe Gaynor takes her red-hot Newcastle Eagles side to Oaklands College, St. Albans tonight to take on the League leading Wolves in a huge Super League Basketball Championship clash at the top of the standings.

The Eagles sit third in the League at present on a 5-game winning streak that has seen them take their overall record to 10 Wins and 3 Losses, a fantastic run. However, their opponents are currently on a 12 wins and 1 loss record and deservedly top of the table.

That one loss though was against The Eagles back on the first day of the month in Newcastle when the Eagles came through convincingly 86 – 70. Since then, Newcastle have also seen off Caledonia Gladiators at home and London Lions on the road both also by double-digit margins.

Gaynor in previewing the task ahead reflected first on the mood in the camp following such a superb run of results.

“We’re in a positive frame of mind and looking forward to the game. We reflected on the London game and we all realised that it wasn’t necessarily our best game but it was great to see contributions from everyone who got on the floor.”

“Really great to see Kendall (Currence) back as well. We can take real confidence that everyone on this team is a weapon that we can utilise.”

Gaynor though is aware that Oaklands will be smarting from that sixteen-point defeat in Newcastle and that both teams will probably have to adjust in the return fixture.

“It would be very naïve to look at the previous game and think that Oaklands will not adjust. You have to bear that in mind when looking at this game. As any good team will do they’ll have looked at the game seeing what worked for them and what didn’t and adjust from that.”

“That’s something that they’ll have done but in preparation for this game it’s something that we’ve done as well so I feel it will be a very different game this time around.”

“It helps to go into games when you’re winning but also the girls knowing their individual skill sets and their strengths as well as the strengths of their teammates. That’s something that we keep highlighting and talking about.”

“This team is player-led and I very much coach that way possibly sometimes to their frustration. I do think that the better you know your teammates and yourself the better you perform. Hopefully, the girls instil that confidence in themselves and each other.”

Obviously, the Eagles and Gaynor want to win as they don’t want another loss on their record. One of the questions though is will that sixteen-point win in the previous game be a significant difference and factor. Gaynor is not looking at that factor though.

“The focus is never to win first. The focus is to be our best selves and hope that winning is the outcome of that. We can take confidence in the last performance against them. But we know full well that we’ll probably get their best performance of the season when we play them tonight.”

“In that we want to make sure that we go toe-to-toe and hopefully come out with the same end result as we got last time.”

There’s no doubting that this is as tough and as big a game as the Eagles have had all season but so far they’ve pretty much risen to every challenge and the 7:00pm tip-off tonight is just the latest one put in front of them.