Maudsley took over as Derby coach from Bradley Wiggins in the summer

Derby Trailblazers head coach Jamie Maudsley says his side will have to up their defensive game if they want to beat Leicester Warriors on Saturday.

The Trailblazers lost their EBL Trophy game to the Warriors last Saturday - an agonising 93-91 defeat.

Maudsley said: "Leicester are tough to beat. The rematch will be interesting.

"Both teams are able to score on each other as the scoreline from last week suggests. I guess we'll both be focusing on improving defensively."

Maudsley added: "There were positives to take; I thought we played well in parts and showed flashes of what we are capable of.

Leicester have a number of players who are capable of putting up big numbers on any given night Jamie Maudlsey

"However, we trailed for 33 minutes of the game so I think we deserved to lose and they were the better team on the day."

And Maudlsey said Leicester are likely to provide an even sterner test this weekend.

"I'm not sure why Mark Spatcher was missing from their line-up last weekend," he said.

"He's a solid player and if he plays on Saturday, he'll add another long-range threat to a team that went 10 from 20 from three-point range, so I'm sure that will prove to be a match-up problem for us.

"We'll watch the game tape back and see where Todd Doyle hurt us the most. I'm not sure if you can stop him, because he's a very talented player, but we'll try to limit his impact.

"However, Leicester also have a number of other players who are capable of putting up big numbers on any given night.

"Right now we have injury concerns over Joel Madourie and Matt Shaw. We'll assess the situation but it doesn't look good for either of them right now and Shaw could be out for a number of weeks."

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version