Sheffield Sharks target momentum building with three SLB games in five days

With four games remaining, Sharks are pretty much locked-in to a fourth-place finish in the standings, meaning a play-off quarter-final with the fifth-placed team awaits in a fortnight’s time.

But before that they have three games in five days starting on Friday night up at Newcastle Eagles and continuing with a double-header against Leicester Riders - at home on Sunday, away on Tuesday night.

Leicester could still sneak into the five spot to become Sheffield’s play-off quarter-final opponents, though the likelihood is that will either be Bristol Flyers or Surrey 89ers.

Sheffield have been dogged by inconsistency all season and not been helped by injuries, the latest a knee injury to William Lee which Lyons still hopes will heal in time for the veteran power forward to figure deeper into the play-offs.

But he will not be wrapping his players up in cotton wool to save them for the post-season, choosing instead to finally find the cohesiveness from his team he has not seen enough of all campaign long.

“That’s the nature of the beast,” he said when asked if he will manage players’ workloads over the next five days.

“You can get season-ending injuries every day from the start of the season if it’s bad enough, so we’ve just got to play the game and accept that that’s part of it.

“Winning something comes down to luck and staying healthy.

“We’re playing well down the stretch, played a tough, tough London side and they probably gave us a bit of tune-up to make us refocus and I think we can still improve on things, and that’s sometimes what you need going into the play-offs.”

Despite making late additions to his squad in Fahro Alihodzic and Troy D’Amico, Lyons still believes Sharks have time left to develop a playing style heading into the play-offs.

“We’re getting a good feel for the team and each other and you can tell offensively there’s a lot of flow,” he said, given his team scored 113 points on Caledonia Gladiators in their last home game a week ago.

“We’re still missing a big piece of that with Will (Lee) being out. But I think we’re playing almost as well as we can be playing and if we continue that the next few weeks, hopefully we can get over that hill.”

The double-header with Leicester brings another reunion with Rob Paternostro who has been coaching in the league almost as long as Lyons has.

“Rob is a hell of a coach, a lot of respect between us, he’ll have his team ready as he always does,” said Lyons.

“Leicester is one of those teams that have been affected by injuries and personnel, they’ve got some guys coming in now and a few weeks to get it together. They’re probably similar to us if they put a run of games together they can win a few games and have to get on a run as well. Everyone is in the same boat right now.”