Unbeaten Loughborough and Birmingham face road games this weekend as they look to strenghten their grip on the Patrons Cup pools.

 

Manchester Magic v Birmingham Mets

Saturday 6 October, 6:30pm, Amaechi Centre

 

Birmingham Mets have begun their Patrons Cup campaign with a win at Derbyshire Arrows and a narrow home win against Eastside Eagles. This weekend they face a trip to Manchester to face Magic.

 

After their opening game against PAWS London Capital was forfeited in their favour, Magic took to the court for the first time last weekend and lost at Arrows after leading for much of the game.

 

Mets started their Patrons Cup campaign last season with two wins (including a matching victory over eventual finalists Arrows), but failed to make the knockout stages after they lost their last two Pool games, so they will be keen on making their good start count this time around.

 

Team Solent v Loughborough Students Riders

Saturday 6 October, 6pm, St Marys

 

Loughborough Riders face a long trip to the south coast to face Team Solent on Saturday evening.

 

Riders have defeated Mansfield and London Westside in their two contests so far and will be confident of picking up a third win against a Solent side that has lost to NASSA and Mansfield in their opening games.

 

Riders' victories so far have come in contrasting styles as they piled on the points against Mansfield (110-82) and stangled Westside into submission (56-40) and this is in stark contrast to Solent, whose losses were both eerily simlar (75-63 and 76-66).

 

Derbyshire Arrows v London United

Saturday 6 October, 5:45pm, Killamarsh

 

Derbyshire Arrows are at home in the Patrons Cup for the third consecutive weekend, with their opponents this week being Jack Majewski's London United.

 

After their come from behind win against Manchester last weekend Arrows will be confident of picking up another victory against a team whose only win this season has come courtesy of an awarded game against Eastside Eagles.

 

Arrows coach Pete Kelly (pictured) is looking forward to the contest: "We like to play at a tempo, but United always seem even quicker and very talented. It is very early days for our group as we are still assembling for this campaign but there were positive signs last week and in training that they will be able to hold their own in this division.

 

"Players are still trying to understand their role within the group but their is no doubt we have a positive outlook on the challenges ahead."

 

The teams met at this stage last season and Arrows recorded a comfortable 84-52 victory and backed that up with two league wins against United later in the season.

 

Mansfield Giants v Glamorgan Gladiators

Saturday 6 October, 6pm, Oaktree

 

Mansfield Giants host Glamorgan Gladiators on Saturday with both teams looking to move to 2-1 in the Patrons Cup.

 

The teams do not have a common opponent yet this season, so don't have a direct comparison of their strengths, but both teams will hope to maintain their momentum after picking up home wins last weekend.

 

When the teams met last season in the Patrons Cup, Glamorgan came out on top 91-83 with Greg Hernandez scoring 30 points. They split their league contests, with the game in Mansfield being a 111-104 thriller that the crowd at Oaktree will be hoping for a repeat of.

 

PAWS London Capital v Eastside Eagles

Saturday 6 October, 6pm, Capital City Academy

 

With both teams having fallen foul of registration issues in their opening contests to record 20-0 losses they will need to make a move soon if they hope to make the knock out stages of the Patrons Cup.

 

Capital did pick up a win last weekend as they visited London United, but Eagles are at 0-2 after a 53-52 loss at Birmingham Mets.