CITY of Birmingham Rockets captain Martyn Gayle this week sets the scene for Sunday’s huge BCB Trophy semi-final at home to Milton Keynes Breakers. It’s the club’s first national semi-final and they will be going all out to make the final. Martyn also reflects on last weekend’s first league win of the season against Nottingham Hoods, which turned out to be a thriller.
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WE’LL be making City of Birmingham Rockets history on Sunday – but we don’t want the story to end there.
The club will be playing in their first-ever national semi-final as we play in the BCB Trophy in Nechells.
We already think the game will be a sellout as our fanbase continues to grow.
It’s a huge achievement for us, but it’d be a mistake to think we’ve peaked.
Taking on Milton Keynes Breakers will be a tough task, but we have our sights playing in the final and winning it, because we really want to win a trophy.
But, it’s brick by brick for us, Sunday is the first task ahead of us – and it’s really captured the imagination. This is a huge milestone for the club.
🏆 It’s game time! Catch us this Sunday as we battle MK Breakers for a place in the BCB Trophy final!
Tickets are going quickly and with a sellout expected, we encourage you to get your tickets early!
Let’s go Birmingham. Let’s go Rockets!! 🚀 pic.twitter.com/6FF5rTMuGl
— City of Birmingham Rockets (@cobrockets) October 20, 2025
We’re excited as a club that we could have even more exposure for the club.
We’ve got a great opportunity to get to a final. So we’ve got to take care of business. But getting to the final and actually winning the final needs to be our goal now.
In the grand scheme of things, that doesn’t really mean much. We know the city can solidify its place back in British basketball.
But our coach, Charles Smith, is always reminding us: ‘We haven’t done anything yet’.
So we’re all singing from the same hymn sheet. I’m hoping it will be an amazing atmosphere in there on Sunday. Milton Keynes are bringing some fans down, like they always do. They’ll have drums banging, we’ll have drums banging.
😤 Eric throws it down and Nechells is on its feet!
Let’s see it out, Rockets!#WeAreRockets pic.twitter.com/yzV5ss1l22
— City of Birmingham Rockets (@cobrockets) October 18, 2025
But Breakers are a really good club. They’ve got a great roster again this year. I know their new coach, Ben Stanley and they’re trying to do great things.
We’ve beaten them already this season, but in my personal opinion, that doesn’t mean anything. They were getting used to their guys, they were getting, familiar with how they play and they’ve figured out a few things now, so they’re going to be better.
They’re going to be well prepared. So we can’t take them lightly. We can’t just think, we’ve beaten them once, we can beat them again. That’s not how it goes in this game.
But we go into the game on the back of a fantastic home league win last Saturday against Nottingham Hoods.
That was a real thriller as we ran out winners 87-84 and it was the ideal response to losing the opening fixture of the season at Derby.
🚀 Rockets win a thriller in our first home British Championship Basketball league game!
👏 Thank you to everyone who came out for your incredible support tonight!
Join us for our BCB Trophy semifinal next weekend!
🎫 https://t.co/1C3WV3uLvM#WeAreRockets pic.twitter.com/0wAO9tjEwC
— City of Birmingham Rockets (@cobrockets) October 18, 2025
We didn’t string a full 40 minutes of good basketball, but we’re getting better and we’re building something. We’ve got some new players, some new dynamics, and it was great to get our first league win.
We always try and protect protect home court. But in terms of what we’re trying to do as a team, it was fantastic. I think the fans really got behind us – the energy in the building was great.
There are some new faces here this year to look out for.
Our main signings are Ronald Blaine, an American. and Eric Donaldson, who’s a British American. His dad, Dick Donaldson, used to play in the British Basketball League many, many years ago. He’s familiar with what’s going on in this country. But they’re both great talents and valuable additions to our programme.
