Bridge: Losing isn’t an option

Feb 2 2008 by Dan Warburton, The Journal

NEWCASTLE Eagles lock horns with the Cheshire Jets tonight as they attempt to clinch a spot in the BBL Trophy Final – and it’s a game skipper Andrew Bridge is adamant they must win.

The long serving Newcastle skipper has been a familiar face on Tyneside for seven years and has seen first-hand the high turnover of talent passing through the Metro Radio Arena.

Following the coup of signing Australian star Steve Leven on Thursday evening, Bridge looks set to suit up alongside another new face as the Eagles return to full strength in today’s last-four clash at Ponds Forge, Sheffield.

“If I’m honest, I don’t really know very much about him,” said the Leeds Met graduate.

“I didn’t even really know we were that close to signing anyone. He hasn’t trained with us yet, so we’ll probably be looking to integrate him into the squad next week.

“It’s going to give us some more players to train with, because when we don’t have ten players in training, it really affects our approach to games.

“But I wouldn’t have thought that we need any more players now. Everyone picked up injuries at the same time, and people were pointing out that we were short.

“Now everyone is fit it might be that the new players don’t get a look in and don’t play many minutes.”

Wyoming graduate Leven will watch court side today as his new employers look to make the final cut.

Having plied his trade in Iceland since the start of the season, Leven was met at Newcastle airport late last night, but he will not be eligible for BBL action until the club finalise his paperwork.

Today’s fixture brings to an end a two-week lull in games for the Tynesiders as they bear down on their final leg of the BBL season.

But having failed to scoop their first-piece of hoops silverware in the BBL Cup final last month, Bridge is adamant he will go all-out to reach the Trophy final today. He said: “Personally I’m back to 100% after I twisted my ankle in the Scottish Rocks game.

“And Fab looks good again. We trained tonight and I haven’t seen him playing like that for a while.

“I don’t know if he’s 100% but he’s 100% better than he was and that’s massive for us.”

Gifted youngster Sam Attah is unable to line up alongside his new team-mates for his debut appearance today.

The Team Northumbria star will take to the court with Greg Modzelewski’s TN roster as he sees out his obligation with the university team. But Bridge is sure that the fresh-faced star can inject some energy into the Eagles campaign count-down.

“I’ve known Sam for a while,” said Bridge.

“I think that he’s going to have a similar impact to that of Tom Sherlock in his first season with the Eagles.

“He’s an energy player and with a lot of teams not knowing too much about him I think that could be to our advantage.”