Brighton Bears are ready to overcome the odds after their ULEB Cup trip to Greece got off to the most dramatic of starts.

Bears, who take on Ionikos in Athens today, saw their plans thrown into confusion when forward Andrew Alleyne was told he could not enter Greece on his Barbados passport without a visa.

Alleyne, who has a work permit for Britain and is registered as European for ULEB Cup purposes due to a trade agreement with some Caribbean nations, was sent straight back to England by immigration officials at Athens airport.

However, Bears have been boosted by the signing of 6'10" Dave Morgan, a Canadian with a British passport, who has played first and second division basketball in Greece.

All this against a startling backdrop of civil unrest which brought the city of Athens close to a standstill and saw the US embassy underfire from demonstrators.

Coach Nick Nurse supervised a training session last night ahead of a game both teams will feel they must win to boost their chances of qualification from a six-team group.

The Bears chief said: "It's a crucial game for both of us after losing last week.

"Basketball is a big sport in Greece and I would assume there will be a terrific atmosphere for us to come into.

"We are trying to get Andrew the visa and get him back but there is only a slim chance of him making it.

"He has the right to work and play but he can't travel to a country in the European Union so it is a bit of a head scratcher but I guess we shall have to learn our lesson."

Morgan, 28, a centre of Welsh parentage but from Vancouver, answered the call when Nurse contacted several agents looking for a cheap replacement for injured Tom Frederick.

Nurse said: "I'm over the moon to get him. He was ready to go, he has taken 15 months off from basketball but he has worked hard to get in shape."

Frederick has made the trip but his foot injury rules him out today and probably against Sheffield on Saturday.

Nurse was watching a video of Ionikos into the early hours of this morning and deciding whether to start Mike Brown, whose defensive skills could be crucial, in place of Sullivan Phillips.

Not that Bears' troubles made any headlines on a day when the people of Athens had rather more weighty matters with which to contend.

The visitors landed in early evening on one of the most highly-charged dates on the Greek political calendar.

Yesterday marked the 30th anniversary of a major student uprising against the dictatorship which ruled Greece at the time.

Expecting violent demonstrations, 7,000 police officers took to the streets of the city centre, closing key roads and some metro stations.

Commuters were whisked out to the suburbs as quickly as possible, including Ionikos's home area of Nea Filadelfia, though once there they found more road closures and buses and taxis running a reduced service.

Back in the centre, streets which were normally teeming with life well into the night stood eerily quiet.

Ironically, the six-lane road outside Bears' hotel, near the central Omonia Square, which had been blocked off all afternoon, was re-opened in the evening just when it seemed the team might enjoy a peaceful night's sleep.

Bears will find an Ionikos team who have made a habit of narrow defeats when the action finally gets under way today at 4pm British time.

They lost their ULEB Cup opener 74-72 at Cholet and defeat by one and three points respectively in their latest league games have seen them slip into the bottom two with three wins from eight outings.

Ionikos have statistically the third best three-point shooter in the Greek top flight in Nikos Papanikolopoulos, who averages 58 per cent from outside the arc, but are one of the poorest supported teams in this basketball mad nation.

Their 1,500-seater home gym, soon to be renovated ready for the Olympics, is likely to be little more than half full, partly because of a tip-off time brought forward to allow for live coverage on Greek subscription television.