It’s One Of the Biggest Games Of The Season For These Two Teams

BIRMINGHAM KNIGHTS

4 – MICHAEL GAYLE
6 – KIERAN MILLS
7 – JOSH ROLLS-TYSON
8 – MARTYN GAYLE
9 – PARM DALIA
10 – JAMES McKEOWN
13 – AARON MAHER
20 – BRENT BENSON
22 – EMILE HOPKINS
23 – RYAN LEWIS
33 – ROBERT CLARK
45 – GLEN IZEVBIGIE
HEAD COACH – PAUL ‘DOUGIE’ DOUGLAS
ASST COACH – TONY SIMMS
ASST COACH – PETER EASY

SURREY UNITED

4 – BRANDON McGILL
4 – KORRY CALLUM
6 – BRADLEY LOXTON
7 – JOEL HENRY
8 – CHAD FORBES
10 – IGNAS SIJANAS
12 – ELVISI DUSHA
13 – ALI HASSAN
14 – CESLOVAS KCUINSKAS
15 – SHAWNTEZ PATTERSON
XX – WESLEY BEZUIDENHOUT
HEAD COACH – JACK MAJEWSKI

All eyes will be on Birmingham Knights and head-coach Paul Douglas as the play-caller tries to finally shed the unwanted label of being the only team in the league yet to experience the sweet taste of victory.

Indeed Knights will face their fellow strugglers three times during the next three weeks.

“I suppose the pressure is on us to get that first win, but it only becomes a problem if we let that get to us and we do not execute well on the day,” claimed Douglas ahead of the first showdown.

“The beauty is that we have them back to back at home first and then the away game, so we just need to try and take care of business on our home court. It’s sort of a European play-off series with playing them three times in less than a month and this can be a good or a bad thing depending who wins the series.

“We really struggled against their defence and we all felt that it was the toughest we have faced all season.

He continued, “With so many games in such a short period of time, we will all get to know how each other plays, so there will be no real surprises on that front. I just really feel it will depend on who performs the best on the day, since both of us want to win badly.”

Douglas had to endure the other end of the spectrum last weekend when his team were demolished by Leicester Riders, although after careful consideration, admits that sometimes you have to accept you are facing a far superior team.

He conceded, “After a couple of days and time to reflect, Riders really came out to prove they were back on track.

“So, although we are very disappointed with the margin of the loss, we have to pay respect to what was a quality team performance from Leicester.

“At times when we did manage to execute, we did cause some problems and these are the areas we will take with us into this next set of games.”

Last time they met:

This is the first ever meeting between both clubs.

What they say:

Surrey United playmaker, Elvisi Dusha: “It will be a fight for who wants it more and they will give a lot, because they feel they can beat us! As a team, we need to re-group and go back to what was working, because recently it’s been mainly a one-sided shows at games! We are going to really, really push ourselves this week in training even harder than normal to grab some wins!”

For information about tickets visit www.birminghamknights.co.uk

Photo – McGILL – Get Surrey