Plenty to tell you about this week with a new player, another win and a testing bunch of away games in prospect.

But before we get on with all that I have an important message to you Brighton Bears fans.

The way things have taken off since our BBC appearance at the cup final, and subsequent media exposure, we are advising people wanting to come to games at the Triangle to book tickets in advance.

I don't suppose you ever thought you would read this but people were turned away at our game with Leicester and, judging from the phone calls and ticket requests we have been fielding since then, I fully expect us to pack the place again for our next fixture.

Remember we are at the Triangle against the Scottish Rocks on February 15 and the London Towers on the 23rd and this advice applies to both those games. You don't want to miss the hottest show in town, do you?

Before then we are on the road. True, we are not up against Chester or Sheffield but it is about as tough as it could otherwise be with Milton Keynes tonight, London Towers just 24 hours later, then Scottish Rocks and Newcastle to follow. To be honest with you, I am not thinking beyond this weekend for now.

It looks like Emiko Etete will miss both those two games and I am disappointed by that. Emiko has been suffering with a shoulder injury and seems to have a much more serious problem than we thought.

That is the trouble when you play big teams like Milton Keynes and Towers. They will try and jam it down hard on us inside and it is very difficult to defend against that and not get into foul trouble.

No doubt about it, this weekend is another huge challenge for us.

At least we now have one more body on board in young Oli Roche, who I signed in time for last Sunday's trip to Leicester. I have always liked Oli as a player.

When I first came here, he and Bud Johnston were the two local kids I noticed. It took a while to get Bud and even longer to get Oli but I'm glad to have them on board.

It means our ninth and tenth men are now a guard and a big man and that is always handy as extra insurance.

Oli has got good size and he can put the ball in the basket. There are a lot of things he does not do well and strength wise he will be in trouble at this level but those are reasons why I have got him in here working with us every day.

Talking of Sussex youngsters, I caught Richard Midgley in action for California Golden Bears in a televised game last Saturday. He got two early fouls but he came good at the end. Take it from me, he is very, very good. It's unheard of for a player to be starting at that level that early and to be scoring points like he is.

I know he dreams of bigger things than the Bears but, you never know, by the time he finishes at Cal, we might just be big enough for him to come here.

As for that Leicester game, well I was just glad to get it out of the way. It was a good professional job by our guys. Without making too much of it, Leicester were poor, but you can still lose those games. We set the tempo early though and there was never any doubt who would win from about five minutes into the first quarter.

I cannot see it being that easy this weekend but two more Ws, whatever the margin, would do very nicely.

Go Bears!