Paternostro – Riders missed Sullivan

Leicester’s hopes of mounting a challenge to pace-setters Newcastle suffered a blow at the weekend, as they were beaten by Glasgow Rocks.

Missing Great Britain captain Drew Sullivan through injury, the Riders were blown away in a decisive second quarter which the Rocks won 36-18.

It snapped a four game winning streak for the Riders, as the Rocks picked up their second win at the John Sandford Centre this season, the first being Leicester’s most recent loss.

Paternostro told the club’s official website: “For us, it’s a difficult thing to play without a guy you’ve been playing with all year. He does so many things on both ends of the floor that I think go unnoticed to the causal observer who are just looking at stats. His spacing, his ball movement and his cutting really helps our guys on the offensive end but also on the defensive end. His length, his ability to be a help defender is something we missed tonight without a doubt.

“Hopefully he’ll be back soon. We didn’t want to take any chances because we have a long, long way to go, a lot of games left, he’s very important to us. He wasn’t quite right tonight. We didn’t want to take any chances and hopefully next week he’ll be back.”

It leaves Leicester lying on a 12-4 record, some way behind the ominous Eagles, who sit top with an 18-1 record.