Eagles pair return for Friday Flyer
NEWCASTLE Eagles return to the court and the wonderful new Eagles Community Arena this Friday night in the BBL Championship against Bristol Flyers.
Newcastle will be keen to get back to winning ways after an enforced International break.
Going into that break they had been looking to extend their unbeaten run to four games.
But, in a heartbreaker of a game they lost out on the road to Manchester 76–75 at the buzzer. It was a game where they were without two starting players in Rahmon Fletcher and Victor Moses through injury.
Canadian forward Kai Williams definitely felt their absence made a difference to the final result.
He said: “Obviously it was a tough game for us and didn’t go the way we wanted it too. Even without Vic and Fletch we gave ourselves a great chance to win but just came up short. We’ve had a good film session on that game and definitely learned a lot from that.”
“Hopefully we’ll correct a few of the things that went wrong and we can move onwards and upwards. If we’d had those two other bodies that would have helped us and we definitely got tired but I don’t really want to use that as an excuse.”
After that game the Eagles coaching staff gave the players time off. Some went home and nearly all spent some quality time with their family and friends. For Williams it was a chance to prepare for another big event coming up.
“I did some stuff to get prepared for the baby coming in June so that was good and it was kind of nice to have some time to recoup and take care of the old body so yeah, I’m feeling pretty good going into this weekend.”
That weekend starts with the match-up against Bristol, a side Williams respects but hopes his side will be ready for especially as it appears Fletcher and Moses will return to the side.
“They’ve both practised and we did a light session with lots of shooting and Vic looked really good. He said he’s feeling fine and Fletch has returned after his sickness and tooth problem and he’s relaxed and looking good as well.”
Winning the last two games in the new arena in front of a partisan and passionate crowd has made a difference to the team and Williams admits it’s starting to feel like home.
“Once we got the first win out of the way there felt like there was a lot less tension in the air. The atmosphere has been absolutely amazing and that win in overtime against Glasgow was phenomenal. The crowd was amazing.”
“There were a few comments from the Glasgow players saying how loud it was and how much fun it looks to play in the arena and for Newcastle Eagles with that sort of atmosphere. The crowd support has always been good but it seems to have gone up another notch.”