Leeds Force must keep calm and keep improving, insists coach Nelson

Consecutive defeats following a memorable first victory of the campaign at home to Manchester Giants in October sees Leeds languishing towards the bottom of the BBL standings.

Despite a desolate run of seven defeats from eight games to begin the season, a determined Nelson is confident that Force’s occasional flashes of ability will soon yield positive results.

“We haven’t had the results that we’ve wanted, but we’re making improvements and have shown spurts of what we can achieve when everything comes together,” Nelson said.

“There’s frustration when you don’t win games of course, but you have to remain calm and keep your head held high. We have to perform for 40 minutes to deserve to win games, and we haven’t done enough to earn those victories yet.”

An injury-hit opening two months of the season has seen a stretched Force tested to their limits, however Nelson is hopeful that a timely health improvement will boost Leeds’ chances of sealing a first away win at Cheshire this weekend.

“We can’t dwell on the past, everyone has to continue working hard and stick together. We’ve had guys playing out of position because of injuries, but we have a fresher roster with more bodies available for Cheshire this Sunday so we’re optimistic of competing for the win.

“We’re doing the best we can with what we have at the moment, it’s a gradual building process and we’re certainly headed in the right direction as a BBL club.”

After suffering defeat to Phoenix two weeks ago in the first of three quick-fire contests against Cheshire, the Irishman sees Sunday as an opportunity for Force to apply lessons learned and claim a slice of revenge against their cross-Pennine rivals.

“They know as much about us as we do about them, but it’ll be interesting to see if we can capitalise on the information we’ve gained from our first meeting two weeks ago. Making the right choices and decisions will be crucial to our success going forwards – we have to be smarter, those mistakes crept in against Plymouth and we were punished so consistency is the key to winning games for Leeds Force.”