Western Morning News (Saturday)
Raiders aiming to get back on track
AFTER a tough week, Plymouth Raiders head into their final fixture in the BBL Championship before the Christmas break, where they will look to get their season back on track against the Manchester Giants.
On Wednesday, head coach Paul James’ team lost out on a spot in the BBL Cup semi-finals following a difficult and very close defeat to the London Lions, who have now progressed into the next stage of the competition.
Despite falling short in the Cup, losing in overtime for the second successive match, Raiders can now focus on picking up more wins in their league campaign, after not having any success since November 12 against the Newcastle Eagles, which is a difficult pill to swallow for the men in green.
The team had a great run at the start of the season in the Cup, losing just one of their group fixtures and then starting the league campaign with back-to-back victories, so they are looking to get back on track.
Going into tomorrow’s game, head coach James expects his team to get back to winning ways.
“We have just got to play at the level we know we can play at, but we are aware that it is going to be very tough again, as Manchester have had a very good start to the season as well,” he said.
“After Wednesday’s game, we have had a day off, looked at the game and talked about what we need to do moving forward in the league. But if we can play at the level that we played at on Friday consistently, we will win a lot of games.”
This season, so far, the Giants have also picked up two wins from four games, against the Bristol Flyers and the Glasgow Rocks, so it is all to play for tomorrow afternoon away in Manchester.
Tomorrow’s game can be streamed live on the BBL Player from 5pm with a game pass costing just £4.99.
You can also purchase monthly pass for £19.99 giving you access to all games. For more details head to bblplayer.co.uk.
Meanwhile, the club have announced plans to welcome supporters back inside the Pavilions from the start of the new year and their clash with Leicester Riders on January 8.
Spectator access to games will be to season members only. There will be no additional tickets on sale (until government guidelines change) and so the only way to watch the Raiders in person will be through a season membership.
Returning season members had access to a priority sales window and the club have since released the remaining seats through general sale. Uptake from our returning season members has been incredible - this means remaining seats are extremely limited.
As an additional perk to becoming a season member, the club are throwing in free access to the BBL Player. BBL Player is the leagues brand new online streaming service which will play host to the majority of BBL fixture this season - and which means you don’t have to miss a single second of the action.
This means season members will get to see every Raiders game this season, both home and away, without having to pay a single penny more.