BATTERED and bruised they may be, but Fab Flournoy has one simple objective for his “fragile” Newcastle Eagles this weekend – keep the season alive.

With Mersey Tigers opening up an advantage at the top of the league, the Eagles simply must defeat the Worcester Wolves and Plymouth Raiders over the next 48 hours to retain a realistic hope of notching a fourth successive BBL title.

Two victories and they are back in with a shout ahead of a potentially season-defining game against the Tigers at Sport Central on Wednesday. Lose either and they face the very real prospect of being out of the title race before that match.

In any other season you would back them to come up trumps, but with injuries piling up and just a few hours to integrate a new player into their complex defensive system, Flournoy knows it will be a tough ask.

His Eagles just don’t seem able to catch a break this season. Having already lost leading scorer Trey Moore as well as most improved player Joe Chapman to a foot injury, Newcastle’s hopes of defeating the MK Lions in midweek were given a further hammering when their coach was held up on the M1 – causing them to arrive just half an hour before tip off. They lost the game and control of their own destiny, but it was little surprise to a coach primed for whatever this crazy campaign throws at them next.

“This season has been incredible. I’ve never known anything like it or heard of a season like it – it has left me pretty much speechless,” said Flournoy.

“Normally at this stage of the season we would have a set idea of how to play, a system and a rhythm that works. But we’re effectively at the start of the season all over again, trying to work out a way to play and trying to find a balance again.

“It’s crazy, it’s awful, it’s exciting, it’s amazing and for a coach it’s pretty stressful. But I have told the guys that the answer is that we need to become a smarter basketball team.

“We don’t have the same firepower anymore and we probably don’t quite have the talent that we had before so we need to be smarter, we need to defend better and we need to stop teams from playing against us.”

With just a two-day turnaround between the Lions game and the trip to Worcester today, Flournoy has emphasised the importance of “re-focusing” to his players.

“There is still a lot to play for. We need to re-focus and concentrate on the fact that we are pretty much still in it, even though we lost on Wednesday,” he said.

“These are two tough teams, both on the road and that is complicated by the fact that we have just played and we’re quite frail now. But if you look at the next few days, there can be no excuses.

“Come Wednesday we could know one way or the other how the season will end for us, but the important thing is we give ourselves the chance.” The Eagles will be boosted by the addition of Drew Lasker, the former Plymouth guard who signed on Thursday to add firepower to their title tilt.

He jetted in yesterday to train with his new team-mates – but Flournoy is not expecting him to adapt as quickly as Reggie Jackson did.

“He came in yesterday but how quickly he meshes with the rest of the guys is still to be determined,” he said.

“We were lucky with Reggie, he knew all the calls and could just come in. It will take longer for Drew, but we don’t have that time.”

Today: Worcester Wolves (away)

Tomorrow: Plymouth Raiders (away)

Wednesday: Mersey Tigers (home)

Friday: Glasgow Rocks (home)

Sunday, April 9: Leicester Riders (away)