Randy Duck has told his players to step up a level or forget about ending Robbie Peers' BBL Trophy dynasty.

Peers won the Trophy three times in a row as Chester Jets coach before moving to London Towers last summer.

Towers face Brighton Bears in Saturday's semi-final at Ponds Forge, Sheffield (4pm) and will fancy their chances of progress after seeing Bears struggle to win recent games.

It looks a fascinating contest, with Bears' Kendrick Warren and Towers' Ralph Blalock up against their former clubs as just one of the sub-plots.

Then there is the question of how Bears deal with Towers playmaker Rod Brown.

Duck, another ex-Towers star, would normally be lined up for that challenge.

Instead, he is commanding the team from the sideline as skipper during his injury lay-off but admitted the strain was telling during Tuesday's tortuous 96-93 win over Newcastle.

Bears were 17 points down inside 13 minutes and 23 adrift late in the third quarter before taking the final period 34-10.

While Newcastle owner Paul Blake raged against the refereeing, calling for Rob Hickman to be banned from Eagles games, Duck was questioning his side's defensive work and their motivation.

He admitted: "We played no defence. Nobody was running back, nobody was playing aggressively, no one was on their job.

"At the end I said 'Look everybody's got something to say but if you guys can't just shut up and play basketball, we're going to get beat' and luckily we turned that around.

"Everybody was really flippant about it, as if 'We're wearing Brighton Bears shirts, they'll give us 20 points'.

"Teams don't do that these days. If anything they come and play harder against us. We've got to get out of that really quickly. If we don't, Towers will beat us by 30.

"They are in very good form. I saw them beat Leicester on Sunday and they are racing the ball up the floor and making things happen.

"If what happened on Tuesday happens on Saturday, I'll yank people out of the game.

"I'll go with five guys who are going to play hard and I'll run them into the ground."

Duck praised his men for their fourth quarter revival but added: "Nothing was said that was spectacular other than 'Look at the scoreboard. If you guys have any ounce of dignity you will go out and guard your men properly'.

"I'm nervous about guys being relaxed enough to say 'We'll just turn it on' because I don't believe in stuff like that. If you play like that you get burned.

"Games like Tuesday scare me to death. I just don't ever want to get in this again."

Duck will spend as much time as possible studying video tape of Towers and also Chester Jets, who Bears face in a tough looking league game in Cheshire on Sunday (5.30pm).

Jets are also in Sheffield on Saturday, playing Scottish Rocks in the second Trophy semi (6pm).

It promises to be an entertaining afternoon for basketball fans and Bears hope as many as possible follow them north.

Duck spent about 15 minutes chatting to spectators as they left the Brighton Centre on Tuesday.

The skipper is clearly putting heart and soul into his new assignment but the T-shirt he wore on Tuesday could not have been more apt.

No Picnic were the words on the front, along with a picture of a Bear.

For the No. 9, this coaching lark right now is certainly that. No picnic.