IT has taken some time, but my philosophy on how the game should be played is now getting through to the players.

I’m very keen that we are defensively sound and that is something we have to do as a team.

Our defensive plan cannot be about individuals, it is something we all have to have responsibility for.

The players were a little sceptical at first, but this is something they are buying into and something that I will not back down on.

If the players buy into my defensive beliefs, then I will give them freedom offensively.

Even when we beat Essex Pirates in the BBL Cup a couple of weeks ago, I praised the win but I still wasn’t happy with how we performed defensively.

Now, after two good games in the last seven days, I’m happy.

We are building some momentum and the fruits of our labours are being rewarded.

I said at the start of the season that I thought Everton Tigers would be right up there, but maybe I was wrong, I think we will find out more over this next month.

A lot of teams have been hampered by visa issues and many of them haven’t been able to get their full squad out there.

That is now changing, so I think in November we will start to see the real teams out there on the court.

The game against London Capital last Saturday highlighted the fact that the replacement for point-guard Anthony Martin lies within my players — in fact, it is not even a topic of conversation anymore.

Evaldas Zabas and Vidmantas Uzkuraitis were superb, but you must not forget Chey Christie either.

This week it was Evaldas who stood out, but that is down to the team effort.

Skouson Harker is also adjusting well to concentrating on his playing game after being head coach for a few years.

We have had many discussions this season which have all been positive and he is an important part of the squad — he is a match-winner.

The game against Leicester Riders on Sunday at the University of Worcester is going to be a true test of our defensive abilities.

There is no way that we can go toe-to-toe with them and try to out-score them — we are going to have to be smarter than that.

Leicester regularly score more than 100 points-per-match and it is up to us to stop them doing that.

We have now started filming our training sessions and that is helping me and the players on the court.

I’m able to adjust a lot quicker to what is happening out on the court now, whereas before I would miss something and I would be devastated.

But by breaking down the videos into segments we can analyse our plays a lot better.