This week, Rockets captain Martyn Gayle reflects on last week’s thrilling match with Essex Rebels and looks ahead to the weekend game with Bristol Flyers. Rockets lost out in a thrilling finish in Nechells, but that has only made them even more determined to get their season back on track.
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WE have some fire in our bellies as we head to Bristol for our latest BCB game – after last week’s huge disappointment.
It may have been a thrilling finish to our match with Essex Rebels in Nechells.
But the fact that we came out on the losing side does not sit well with us.
It was a tough one to take, we were seven points up with 90 seconds to go, but Essex won it 90-87 in the tightest of finishes.
That was our first home defeat of the season, and of course it was a disappointing result.
✈️ Rockets are on the road to Bristol looking to return to winning ways in @BritChampBball!
🆚 @BristolFlyers II
🏆 British Championship Basketball
🕡 6:30pm
🏟️ SGS Wise CampusLet’s go Birmingham. Let’s go Rockets!! 🚀 #WeAreRockets pic.twitter.com/MvPluaOXIO
— City of Birmingham Rockets (@cobrockets) November 22, 2025
A few fans have said to me that it was a great advert for the game of basketball.
If you look at it from that point of view, I suppose it was. Whatever the result, you’re guaranteed an exciting match if you come down to see us play.
But we are here to win, we know what our targets are, and it’s up to us to achieve them.
I’m a bit older now in terms of maturity. Okay, we lost. But at the end of the day, yes, it was a good game. As long as people enjoyed it, as long as people had fun, then we can learn from it as players.
But, as competitive guys, we all hate losing.
We’re back at home next weekend against Yorkshire Dragons, so come and see us, it’s a great night out.
But this week, it’s been back to the drawing board and working on what went wrong last weekend.
We sat down with each other, and there was nothing too deep, but we spoke about the game.
🚀 Essex snatch the win after a tight game to hand us a first home defeat of the campaign.
We’re back at home in a couple of weeks as we host our BCB Trophy final opponents Yorkshire in the BCB regular season.
Thank you for your support this evening! pic.twitter.com/0x8i8HyAsu
— City of Birmingham Rockets (@cobrockets) November 15, 2025
And we looked at how we’re going to get better and how we’re going to do it.
We put it into action and we’ve had a really good week of practice. We’ve stuck together and we’ve done our thing. I’m really pleased with how we’ve responded.
This weekend, we go to Bristol Flyers, who came up from Division Two last season. Yeah. So they’re in their first season at our level.
They’re a young team, and they’ve got some really good guys and a great coaching staff.
But we’re on a bounce back. We’re trying to get back to winning ways. So they’re in our way of doing that, and we’re preparing for a win.
We’re wounded after the Essex game, but that only makes us more determined to win this time.
