PAUL Blake has graded the Newcastle Eagles season as an A-minus so far – as he warns this is the most competitive BBL in years.

The Eagles are top of the league and in the BBL Cup final after an encouraging start to the campaign, but a defeat to Worcester Wolves on Friday brought them crashing down to earth.

It leaves the Eagles vulnerable to a surge from a strong-looking Leicester Riders and with the Wolves themselves snapping at their heels.

Plymouth and Sheffield, who have improved of late, are also in the mix.

However, to be setting the pace is a decent effort from a team totally transformed by extensive recruitment efforts over the summer.

“The half-term report before Friday was A-plus but after that it has been demoted A minus,” Blake (pictured right) said.

“For the depth of squad we have and considering the consistent injury trouble we have been going through we have done well.

“You could see clearly on Friday that if we had had a point guard it would have made a huge difference to the result.

“It is difficult to explain how much of a difference it would have made.

“All of our problems really came from Paul (Gause) being unavailable – we had any number of players trying to guard Tommy Freeman because we did not have Paul there to guard their point guard (Sherad) Prezzie-Blue.

“So those are the sort of problems we have had to deal with and we have done that pretty well for the most part.”

Not that the Eagles are taking it for granted they will end the trophy drought that began last season.

With the disbanding of the all-conquering Mersey Tigers team the BBL title race is as open as it has been for many a year – with Blake believing any one of five teams could finish top.

He added: “It has been a long time since you could say four or five teams could still win it going into the New Year, but that is what we have.

“Leicester look super strong this year, and it looks as if Flinder Boyd will be there for the rest of the year now.

“There are Plymouth, Worcester and Sheffield too and we will all take games off each other from now until the end of the season.”

In a sign of the fighting spirit at Sport Central, Joe Chapman played through a dislocated shoulder on Friday.

The American forward popped his shoulder out of joint mid-way through the Worcester Wolves defeat but after ten minutes of treatment he returned to the court – and played on Sunday too.

The Eagles can ill afford more injury problems after hamstring trouble blighted their star guard Gause in his first few months in England.

Despite numbers being thin on the ground, though, Blake says the club will not follow the route of recruiting a new player in the New Year.

The Eagles are understood to have gone over budget trying to solve their injury problems at the end of last season and Blake blocked the move to recruit Drew Lasker last month.

He said: “It is not on the agenda at all. Needs must really and it is just a question of keeping to the budget.

“We do have a smaller roster than in previous years but the development programme is beginning to bear fruit.”