THIS week Martyn takes a look back at a memorable match for City of Birmingham Rockets as they made it to the final of the BCB Trophy – and secured a place in a national final for the first time. It means the club continue to head in the right direction – and aim to combine it with a successful league season. Rockets have also provided a selection of photos from Sunday’s win over Milton Keynes.
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WE made club history on Sunday by reaching the final of the BCB Trophy to take another huge step forward for the Rockets.
As we said in last week’s column, reaching the semi-finals was not going to be enough for us, and that’s the attitude we took into the game against Milton Keynes.
It was always going to be a big occasion, and that’s how it turned out. We had a capacity crowd with fans of both teams – and the match itself was a great spectacle for anyone who was a neutral.
There weren’t too many of those, though, and it was us who made the best start – and kept it going right to the end.
As a team, we stuck to the game plan from the jump and settled in early.
Usually, we have a rough start for the first three minutes or so, while everyone’s settling their nerves. But I think this game was turning over a new leaf for us in terms of being a bit more mature, a bit more disciplined in what we’re doing.
And it worked out well for us. They came out hot, but we managed it and then had a little run of our own. But from then we just led the game the entire way.
We’ve always said, we need to start how we mean to go on. We can’t have these rough starts and have to dig ourselves out of a hole a lot of the time.
So, this time, we knew the kind of severity of the game and what it meant.
The atmosphere in there was amazing. And by the end of the game, even their fans were cheering just for the game in its entirety – not only for their own team.
But importantly, it is the first time the club have been at any kind of final at this kind of professional rank. We’re making the right moves, and we need to make that next step and win that trophy when the date comes around.
It’ll be a little bit of a wait though. We think the final will be in March at a neutral venue, so the club will release the details when everything’s ready to be announced. It’ll be a date that suits both teams’ schedules.
So, we’re concentrating on the league now and we go to Reading Rockets on Sunday. They’re a good team, but we share the same name, so there’s a little bit of fire in there as well.
I think in terms of their preparation, and I think they’re going to be one of the top teams in this league this season. They’ve got a great coach and roster.
But the man we have to watch out for is Victor Olarerin, who made 51 points and seven rebounds against Essex Rebels — a new club record.
So we’ll have our hands full in trying to keep him quiet. But we’re ready. We haven’t lost at home yet, but it’s about travelling on the road and doing it there as well.
I keep telling the lads, it’s a marathon, it’s not a sprint. So we have to make sure we gain some traction away from home. We know we’re good at home where we’re comfortable, and we know we’re good.
So we have to know how we react when we’re away from home, when the fans are against us. How do we compose ourselves in those situations?
We’ve made a great start to the season, now we want to keep it going in the league and put the Trophy final to one side for now.
