North West BBL Weekend Preview
The North West teams in the BBL are all at the lower end of the scale when it comes to the championship table, however they are right in the mix this weekend.
Cheshire Phoenix upset Newcastle Eagles away last Friday, and almost sprung another shock against Leicester Riders at home, but this weekend, they have a date with destiny over the important head-to-head clash with Manchester Giants, and a first leg semi-final against Sheffield Sharks in the BBL Trophy.
Speaking ahead of this weekend, coach Matt Lloyd knows that getting the result tonight at Wright Robinson College puts them back in to a good position for one of the last remaining play-off spots: “We are looking at it being very tough game on Friday, although they have parted ways with Nick George, they are still a strong outfit and have multiple people that can hurt us in all positions. It’s a game we must win in order to get the head-to-head over one of our rivals which we have failed to do over Durham and London so we need to against Manchester and Sheffield in a few weeks’ time.
“The way the guys have been playing of late is very positive there is a good vibe within the camp at the moment – they are coming back together after all the goings on earlier in the season. We have a very talented team that, when they play together, have the capability to beat anybody in the league as shown last Friday when playing Newcastle and on Sunday keeping Leicester to 69 points. We will take one game at a time and try to win as many games as possible.”
Looking to Sunday night’s Trophy game, the focus is entirely on getting the win, and the same will go for the return fixture a week today: “Our aim is to win both games, it doesn’t matter if the score is better by one, overall the important thing is the win and getting to the final. Again, we will take each game as it comes to us and what ever is presented to us within the game. The target person for us is Mike Tuck; he is having another fantastic season and he hurt us in previous games.”
Manchester Giants lost George this week, which for many people signals a possible end to their play-off hopes, but speaking to Anthony Jepson of Manchester Evening News, Jeff Jones has earmarked five wins, including their two fixtures this weekend for them to reach the season’s knock-out party.
“This weekend is it, two wins and were are still in it. But we have to get both. We have to beat both Cheshire and London to stay alive. We’ve got London again and Durham and Mersey.
“That makes five games we have got to win – if we don’t we have no chance.”
Mersey Tigers, having spoke with Chris Bigley this week on UKAmericanSportsFans.com, almost produced a shock win over London Lions three weeks ago, losing by nine, their second best result all year, however the addition today of Nathan Schall, who didn’t seem to fit in at Giants, but had a marvellous end to his season last year at Cheshire Jets, may just boost their chances somewhat. The pressure has also lessened as their scheduled television appearance in BBL Championship for Sunday was also shifted in the fixtures because of fixture congestion from the BBL Trophy games.
All that said though, Paddy Power has today marked London Lions at 1/300, and Mersey Tigers for the victory at their biggest odds all year – a massive 33/1…
