NEWCASTLE Eagles are gunning for their 13th straight win in the BBL tonight as Cheshire Jets roll into Sport Central in a crucial top-of-the-league clash.

The Eagles are joint top of the BBL – along with Mersey Tigers and Sunday’s opponents Glasgow Rocks – with the Jets only two points behind them.

Newcastle are in a hot streak of form as far as the league is concerned, their overall BBL record standing at 13 wins from 16 games.

Cheshire, though, have thrown their hat into the title race with 12 victories from their 17 fixtures so far.

However, in their one meeting so far this season in October, it was the Jets who emerged triumphant 76-75 in a pulsating clash at the Northgate Arena.

Assistant boss Dave Forrester will be in charge of the Eagles tonight with head coach Fab Flournoy recuperating from his recent illness after being released from hospital on Wednesday night, and he is expecting the Jets to give Newcastle no quarter come 7.30pm tonight.

He said: “It is a long time since we have played the Jets. In fact they were the last team to beat us in the league.

“They are clearly based around the scoring of [Jeremy] Bell and [Quemont] Greer, but [Colin] O'Reilly and [Gareth] Murray are really exceptional glue guys in holding the team together and playing within their limitations.

“We did not play well against them at all in October and they deservedly took that game.

“We need to rebound the ball better against them as they are probably the longest team in the league.”

Forrester took charge in last weekend’s double-header against Guildford Heat and Essex Pirates which saw a brace of wins for the Eagles.

The stand-in boss paid tribute to his players for bagging four vital BBL points in what cannot have been an easy week for them.

He added: “It really was a tough weekend with a Friday night game and a 600-mile round trip on Saturday against the background of uncertainty as to Fab’s health all through the week.

“We simply set ourselves the task of getting through both games so we could sit down after the weekend and make more concrete plans as to where we go now.

“That we managed to do that is credit to the professionalism of all the players and it would be wrong to single any individual out.”

Eagles’ skipper Andrew Bridge echoed Forrester’s sentiments as he praised the team-spirit which surrounds the Newcastle dressing room.

He said: “It went okay, and it was kind of a relief to be playing the games and get away from the Fab situation.

“We did not make any changes to what we normally do. We are an experienced team, and we know what to do in different situations.

“We need to keep to our roles, where it could go wrong is if we start trying to do things differently.

“We just needed to get through the weekend and we did fine.

“The biggest problem probably was when I spent the whole of the third period at Essex sitting on the bench with a nose bleed, and we were struggling with foul trouble as well.

“As for Cheshire, any one of their players can beat you on the day.

“They play great team basketball at both ends of the floor.

“It is clear to all who their main scorers are, but they are too good all over to focus on just one or two guys.

“The last time we played them was long enough ago for it to bear and relevance on this game.

“The first thing is to deal with their defence, which I believe is one of the best in the league.”