We must handle the heat of battle

Mar 27 2011 by Mark Douglas, Sunday Sun

NEWCASTLE Eagles assistant boss Dave Forrester has warned there are plenty more hard yards to cover in the most frenetic BBL title scramble in history.

The Eagles beat the MK Lions on Friday to get their championship bid back on track after midweek defeat in Merseyside, but that was just the beginning of a gruelling run-in that will see them cover an astonishing 3,500 miles in three weeks.

That marathon programme resumes today in Guildford against a Heat side that stuffed the Glasgow Rocks by 20 points last weekend and ran the Mersey Tigers – still the Eagles closest title rivals – very close on Friday.

No chance for a let-up then, as Forrester was only too ready to point out.

“The fixture list is just intense at the moment,” he said.

“The league is still very much in the mix and no one can predict it. Someone will limp over the line and I think the team that proves itself to be the fittest and healthiest will probably win it.

“We play Guildford; Mersey Tigers were at Worthing on Saturday night. No matter how good you are – no matter whether you’re good, bad or indifferent – sooner or later you’re going to run out of gas in the tank.

“Guildford in their own gym are a tough team to play. We haven’t played them at their place yet so we won’t be used to that, but we hop straight off the coach after a six-hour drive into that kind of an atmosphere.

“It won’t be easy because they’re showing that they’re a decent side as well. They beat the Rocks by 20 points last week and they’re fighting for their lives in the play-offs like everyone is.

“Worcester are, Plymouth are. We haven’t even got Essex Pirates to play and that wasn’t an easy game for us either!

“All the teams that we have to play are potential banana skins. We lost at Worcester, we nearly lost at Milton Keynes – we have to travel to play both of those teams and go to Plymouth as well.

“Our season ends with four games in seven days – that will be 2,500 miles on the road and a last game in Plymouth.

“Everyone is looking to that Mersey game on April 6 as if that will decide the league, but it could be over before then if we’re not mentally right and physically right too.”

Forrester and player-coach Fab Flournoy couldn’t have asked for much more than they got on Friday – but that didn’t stop the pair from picking holes in the performance.

More intensity is required, the Eagles No 2 asserted after seeing a drop in the third quarter.

“One of the things that has plagued us all season is dropping intensity for three or four minutes at a time,” he said.

“Hopefully when we get our rotations right and use Fab (Flournoy) in the right way we’ll be in a position where we can maintain that intensity.

“It happened a little bit on Friday. I didn’t think we ever looked like we would lose but the harder examinations are ahead of us.

“If we don’t play all 40 minutes against Guildford we will get punished.”

The form of Kadiri Richard is certainly a plus. One block off a triple double on Friday, ‘the Terminator’ looks the part after a slow start to his Eagles career.

“It was his best performance for us on Friday. By half-time he had 10 points, 11 rebounds and six blocks,” Forrester said.

“To block nine shots – as he ended up with – is incredible. And to rebound like he did.

“He did everything which we could ask of him.

“A lot of Kadiri’s game is about energy. If he has it, he’s a force of nature. If it’s a little bit down he becomes just another player.

“I know people were asking questions earlier in the season but we always say ‘Judge them in March’. If they’re not playing well then, we haven’t done our job.

“But if they’re producing in March then that’s when they should produce.”