CITY of Birmingham Rockets captain Martyn Gayle takes a look ahead to Saturday’s trip to Newcastle, the place where he used to play his basketball and where coach Charles Smith is also well known to the fans. But he knows a win is needed after another frustrating result last weekend.
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WE’VE got the long trip up to Newcastle Knights on Saturday. It’s a 7.30 leave in the morning because it’s a 2pm tip, so that’s an early one for the team.
But we’ll be prepared for it. We’ll get a good night’s sleep before we travel up there. But this is a big game for us in many respects.
We’ve got the links with myself and coach Charles Smith going to old stamping ground. But, at the end of the day, we need a win. We’ve been struggling for that, and the most important thing is actually going there prepared, and leaving it all on the floor, leaving everything that we’ve got, no matter how that looks – whether people do a lot or a little. It’s all about chipping in and digging in, putting our best foot forward, and trying to come out with a victory.
Myself and Newcastle coach Mark Elderkin are still really good friends. We talk quite often and we’re actually going for dinner the next day. So there should be a nice, warm welcome, and a couple of the players are still there for when I was. I hope I was one of the good guys when I was there.
But there’s still fan love there. I get messages from some of the fans up in Newcastle asking me how I am and they’ve told me they’re going to come to the game. It’s all love and, in basketball, that’s the kind of general feeling with it anyway, no matter what club you go to. Fans will still generally have respect and love for you.
The game of basketball, people are aware of the blood and sweat that goes into it. The general respect level of basketball players amongst each other and amongst the supporters alike is a generally a good one.
🚀 The visitors edge it.
👏 Thank you for your fantastic support this evening!
Rockets men are back at Nechells in a couple of weeks, we hope to see you there!
🎫 https://t.co/6z88fpDO4R#WeAreRockets pic.twitter.com/x4oSZra6q4
— City of Birmingham Rockets (@cobrockets) February 15, 2025
Saturday was another frustrating performance against Bristol. But basketball is always going to be a game of runs. I think we both played well in moments of the game. But they had the momentum towards the end, and they just rolled it out and came out with the victory.
If there was more time, I think we would have won. But we can’t play like that, we can’t leave it to chance. We have to start doing better. We have to start sticking to the game plan. We have to be more disciplined. We have to be more motivated to get defensive stops. That will help us win games.
Obviously, it’s very disappointing to come out with losses at the end of these games, when we’re trying as best as we can, and we’re learning as we’re going along, we’re not perfect. Nobody’s perfect, but we’re owning our stuff, we’re owning our losses and the overall mood is a good one. It’s still a positive one.
