WE are preparing for a tough match at Manchester Giants on Sunday in the British League and our training has been focused.

After losing 88-54 to Leicester Riders in our last match, we made a decision to release Malik Smith and we are hoping to bring in a new point guard from the USA.

We are hoping to have the contracts and other things sorted by the end of this week and then it’s a matter of paperwork and permits to be applied for.

We felt a change in personnel needed to happen and, as a group, we have spoken about the defeat against Leicester and looked at what had to be done in training. We have changed a few things.

We have looked at the offences we are running and at some things which can free us up a bit more to get more scoring opportunities.

When we looked back at the tape of the Leicester game we actually got all the scoring opportunities we wanted. There were shots we would want to get in games — but it was a bad night for us.

We are not trying to reinvent the wheel and we will continue to build on what we started but we have to start putting the ball in the hole.

I think we have now put the Leicester game to bed. I we had made a couple of shots here and three I think we would have been right back in the contest.

We haven’t got too down on ourselves about the display but we have put some new sets within what we are doing and I am looking forward to seeing how they work on Sunday.

Against Manchester last year it was one of those games last year when I felt we slipped up. We want to make sure we apply ourselves properly and give ourselves every possibility of winning this game.

We have a rotation of eight or nine players and, for an away game like this, we will run with that. Hopefully, we will have enough strength in depth to get two vital points.

Disraeli Lufadeju, Javier Mugica and Jay Couisnard can all play at guard so we are not short of people to fill the spot left by Malik’s departure.

We have players who can play in two or three positions which a great situation for us. I am not too concerned about us covering that spot until we get in the guard.

Manchester are a good team and coached by a former England player, Yorick Williams, who has had tremendous success over the years in the BBL.

I know Yorick and the way he played. He was an intense type of player and I am sure he will put that across to his team.

Manchester will be well organised and well drilled and we have just got to make the most of what we have got.