THE season begins in earnest for Worcester Wolves tomorrow as they begin their quest for National League Division Three play-off glory.

The Wolves take on Brighton Cougars in the quarter-finals at University College Worcester (4pm).

And following an excellent first season in the league, they will be confident of taking another step towards promotion.

But the Wolves won by only three points, 101-98, at Brighton in their final game of the regular season last week, having been behind for most of the match.

The club's director of operations Mick Donovan is expecting another testing contest in front of a big crowd.

He said: "They are a good side. They are quite young but two or three of them are former England players and they shot ever so well from range last week."

Wolves, despite losing only three league games, were edged out by Bristol Bombers for the title.

But they will guarantee promotion to Division Two in their first season if they win the play-offs, competed for by the top eight sides in the table.

Donovan added: "We were really disappointed that we haven't won the league. We lost games we should have won.

"This is now our chance to see if we are strong enough to do it. If we are mentally tough, we will win it."

Donovan believes Colin Chiverton can play a key role tomorrow after his 23 points, on his return to the side, had a big influence in their victory last week.

"He did really well for us. In the last few games our player-coach Rick Solvason has been scoring virtually all our points but last week it was spread around the other players.

"We need to get points from other players."

Wolves expect to be close to full strength for the big game.

Tony Forde, Dwayne Ewart and Mark Brennan return to the squad after being unavailable last week, but Danny Riordan is away in America.

Wolves will also have home advantage in the semi-final if they win tomorrow. That would be played a week tomorrow (April 22) against either Thames Valley or Nottingham.

The final will be played at a neutral venue.