Love expecting tough Newcastle trip

Plymouth Raiders’ coach Gavin Love is expecting a difficult game when they travel to the north east to face Newcastle on Friday.

Love said: “Newcastle are always a tough experienced team who are used to winning silverware, so we are looking forward to the challenge.”

Love has a good idea of which players to look out for: “Joe Chapman, Andrew Thompson and Paul Gause look to have had great starts to this season.”

Raiders split their opening two BBL Championship games of the season last week, beating Prestige Homes MK Lions but losing a thriller at Worcester Wolves, leaving Love with mixed emotions:

“We did not play well in the first half at Wolves but there were a few positives in the second. Richie Gordon and Sherrad Prezzie-Blue were very good for Wolves. Mike Ojo had a great game against the Lions and Howard Crawford had a very solid game for them as did Daniel Northern.”

Eagles’ captain Andrew Bridge admitted that they didn’t play well against Jets, but is looking forward to matching up with the Raiders: “We weren’t great and we didn’t play particularly well. I think that Schneck going out injured galvanised them, they were playing well anyway. But we won the game, and ultimately that’s all that matters.

“Plymouth lost their last game, so they’ll be smarting from that a little. They look like they’ll be one of the strongest teams this year. They’ve got some good players, and I expect it to be a good game.”

The Eagles swept the three games series between the teams last season, and hold an 18-9 lead in the all-time series between the clubs.