JOSH Cooprider insists his Worcester Wolves side will be going into today's British Basketball League match at Newcastle Eagles (3pm tip-off) full of confidence, despite a heavy defeat last time the sides met.

Wolves slumped to an 87-62 loss at the Newcastle Arena in October, but play-caller Coop-rider believes his side can fare better this time.

For the last trip to the North East, Wolves were in the middle of a crippling injury crisis, but that has eased and Coop-rider is able to put out a much more competitive side.

Wolves should also be in confident mood after winning 92-85 at Chester Jets in their last outing - a BBL Trophy clash on December 17.

The head coach said: "We won our last game before going into the Christmas break which is a positive and we haven't had too many of those this year.

"So, we are riding into the Newcastle game on the back of a one-game winning streak, we feel good and will be focusing on the positives.

"We were going through a dificult spell with injuries when we played them before, so we won't take anything from that match at all. We will be going there knowing what we can do and hopefully that will be good enough to win."

Wolves wsill be without key player Valdas Urbonavicius, who has a knee injury, for today's game, but Cooprider believes that could be a blessing in disguise.

"Obviously it is a blow not to have Valdas available, but on the other hand, it means we can move Tom Perkes to his spot and play Solomon Sheard and Sergio Rodriguez," he added.

"This makes us a much bigger line-up which means we compete better physically and they were the players who helped us win our last game.

"However, Sergio is struggling with a bit of 'flu at the moment, so we have to hope he is well enough to travel."