Reading Rockets will play only their second ever home game outside of Reading when they take on rivals the London Leopards at the Magnet Leisure Centre in Maidenhead on Sunday (4pm tip). Once again, Rockets home venue, Rivermead Leisure Complex is out of action so the Berkshire club travel east of the county to play the 9th placed team and play-off contenders the Leopards. This will be the third time the two teams have met having been drawn against each other together with the London Mets in the National Trophy Pool stages earlier this season. Leopards won the first encounter in a low scoring game beating the Rockets by 56 points to 45, however, the Berkshire club gained revenge back at the Rivermead where they recorded an 80 points to 66 win which helped them secure top spot.
Rockets go into the game with two positives for the first time this season. Fenny Falmagne looks to be over his knee injury which has kept him out of action for the last couple of weeks, and the Berkshire club are also pleased to welcome back point guard Daniel McKay who took time off to concentrate on his University studies. The London-born 21 year old re-joins the Rockets in time for the visit of the London Leopards and Rockets Chairman Gary Johnson is very pleased to have the youngster back with the team. He said, ‘It was always Dan’s intention to return after taking some time off to help with his final year of University. Now this busy period has passed he is back in training and looking to work his way back into the fold. I’m delighted that he has returned so soon as he adds a lot to our team and is also a fantastic young man – I know the coaching staff are looking forward to seeing him back.’
Rockets Head Coach Matt Johnson has been reflecting on his first couple of weeks in post and has been happy with his teams’ progress since the forced departure of Sasa Punosevac. He said, ‘These past few weeks have certainly been a challenge for our team and I am certain that we are beginning to see ourselves as a genuine contender for late season honours. Last weekend’s ‘home’ game was a real measure for us at Taunton. The last time we played them we were trailing 24-8 at the end of the first quarter and only just managed to ‘eek out a win! This time we began to see our team expect to be better and becoming frustrated at some poor play... a good sign that we are starting to turn the corner towards a team that plays every play at last!’
In preparation for the weekend’s game, Rockets Team Analyst Ben Fisher is in the knowledge that the Leopards will be needing to win their encounter on Sunday as they look to push themselves back into play-off contention. He said, ‘It will be an interesting match-up against our old rivals the London Leopards. They have had a tough campaign so far and have had quite a few personnel changes so we are expecting a difficult game from them. The additions of Lukas Volskis and Laurent Irish seem to have added a bit of balance to their team but we will still be fully aware of Carl Latham-Henry will possess for us having led the Leopards 17 times this year. They will be coming to us off the back of a tough trip to Middlesbrough but it is in times of adversity teams are at their most dangerous – something we will need to guard against as we continue our push up the table.’
The action starts at the Magnet Leisure Centre at 4pm
