Rob Marsden: Hurting Leeds Force will not surrender again '“ that I can guarantee you

Well that was hard to take, the heaviest defeat of my career.
Rob Marsden tries to make something happen against Leicester Riders. PIC: Kieron Nevison/Leeds ForceRob Marsden tries to make something happen against Leicester Riders. PIC: Kieron Nevison/Leeds Force
Rob Marsden tries to make something happen against Leicester Riders. PIC: Kieron Nevison/Leeds Force

To go down 103-39 to the Leicester Riders in the BBL last Friday night at the Carnegie Sports Arena was unacceptable.

For me they are the best team in the country, the depth in their side is scary.

One through 10 they can all do a job.

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The scouting job they did on us was the best I have ever witnessed.What I mean by that is they knew every single play we were going to execute, they even knew where we were going to pass before we even passed it.

We sat in the dressing room after the game trying to put our finger on what exactly went wrong and how the scoreline was allowed to get to what it did.

We were all hurting. None of us like to lose but to lose in such manner, at home too, it can never happen again.

It is out of the system now and we are having an extremely strong week in training.

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The whole squad is focused and determined to put this right.

We face Leicester again this weekend (Sunday, 4pm, Leicester Community Sports Arena), this time at their place so we really need to make sure we put up a better fight.

Our heads started to drop after the first quarter and we started to do the little things wrong which didn’t help.

When you are playing such a strong side you have to do your job properly and we didn’t do that and that added fuel to their fire.

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They saw us falling apart and they pounced and didn’t let up.

They were all over us we couldn’t get down and play our own game.

My own performance wasn’t where I wanted it to be, I am not match fit, I only trained on Thursday, the day before the game.

My ankle felt much better on Wednesday night and on Thursday I tested it out so I made the decision to make myself available to play.

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The ankle is not an excuse. It felt fine on the night. It was strapped up well. I just wasn’t up to game pace.

When the game was taken away from us, coach (Matt Newby) took me off to rest it.

There is no point in taking risks on it when the game was going the way it was.

With a full week’s training under my belt, and with the squad working on a few different things, I am confident we can go down to Leicester and put in a much better performance.

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The boys and I can only apologise for the manner of the defeat on Friday. That is not who we are as people, athletes and most of all players of Leeds Force.

It’s been a horrible pill to take, but we’ve taken it and now it can only get better, because let’s face it, we are at rock bottom.

We need your continued support to help us get through this and come out the other end better and stronger.

We will be a Force again. That I can guarantee!

After Sunday’s game it’s then another trip south to face London Lions at the Copper Box Arena in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on Wednesday, October 26, at 7.30pm.

Interview: Arif Ahmed

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