WE had a setback at Leicester Riders but we are working hard to put things right before our next British Basketball League fixture at Manchester Giants on October 11.

There are signs of some really good things happening, following our first three competitive matches, but we have also shown naivety in the way we’ve played.

With so many new faces in our team it was always going to take time to gel. Some players are still getting used to the league and the way in which the game is played.

We are currently searching for a new playmaker to replace Malik Smith who has left the club this week.

Malik arrived at the club to score points but he wasn’t doing that as well as I hoped.

We’ve had six games, including the three Championship games, and things just didn’t feel right for me or for Malik.

We have a bit of a break until our next game and we thought we would make the decision now rather than leave it and dwell on it.

Jay Couisnard and Pavol Losonsky have been scoring double figure points and we need a third and fourth player to be able to do that, too. There were no arguments from Malik about being released from his contract because I think he was finding things a struggle as well.

You don’t recruit players to release them. It’s unfortunate. Malik is a nice lad and we wish him well.

We are now looking for a player who can come in and contribute at both ends of the floor.

The search has started immediately and we are looking for a player to run the team, be able to score and play defence. The hunt is on and, hopefully, we will find the right player who is going to come in and do all the things we want him to do. We are working tirelessly to get the right person.

We managed to sneak a last-gasp 78-76 win against Bristol Flyers at the University of Worcester Arena in a game where we made it hard for ourselves.

We had the best of the first-half and we didn’t make the most of our opportunities. We missed some easy opportunities which could have put the game beyond Bristol.

If you don’t take your chances you always give teams an opportunity to stay in the contest. We ended up struggling and we were lucky to get away with the win.

I am sure it was a fantastic match for the fans because it was on a knife-edge and we won. But from a coach’s point of view, I was extremely disappointed with the manner in which we allowed a 10-point lead going into the fourth quarter to disappear.

Leicester are probably an even better team than last year and we can’t get too carried away about our 88-54 defeat. They only scored 88 points and normally I would be satisfied with that because I think we should be capable of scoring 90 points. Our scoring was terrible, we shot the ball extremely poorly, and I doubt we will shoot the ball that poorly again this season.

We had some really good looks at the basket but the ball did not fall for us. It could have been so different. We needed one player to step up to make some shots.

We can’t afford to dwell on the past. It wasn’t a happy night for the club, the players or the fans but we will continue to work hard because we don’t want it to happen again.