We are back in great heart again after our hard-fought overtime win over London Towers and ready for a huge test this weekend.

We have three games in four days which could shape our season. Certainly I will be looking for three wins to set us up nicely for the home game with Chester a week on Saturday.

I know one or two of you were not too keen on the quality of our game with Towers but you could not fault it for excitement in the closing stages. It could have all been a lot worse. It has been pointed out to me we have won six of our last eight meetings with Towers and that has got to be great progress.

Sunday's game could have gone either way.

It was just like the last time we played them at the Triangle, when they beat us in overtime, and the previous game we had there with Scottish Rocks. It was certainly a big win for us. In fact, people might underplay just what a key result it was.

Now the race is really on for this title. We should be healthier next weekend and we've got to get on with it. Okay, I know we are struggling to move the ball. We are not getting any transition buckets. This team is different to what it was.

Instead of racing up and down and putting on pressure all over the place we are kind of big and slow right now.

But that's okay, it will change. We will have both guards ready for this coming weekend and hopefully we will find our chemistry right away and score a few more points. Our defence is still tough, a lot better than last week, and I'm excited about the title race.

Losing last Sunday would have hurt us but we are right in there and we have interesting times ahead. A lot of credit goes to Ralph Blalock.

He is still hurting, you can see that, but he played through it, especially when it really counted. He made some big shots and battled, which is hard to do when you are hurt.

It has been a big week for Randy Duck and I expect to throw him back into battle some time over the weekend. I can assure you he really appreciated the tremendous ovation he received from the crowd when he was introduced before last Sunday's game.

I'm looking forward to getting Randy back. He will be so energised and once fully healthy, he will be really fresh for the stretch run.

Watching Rico Alderson do so well in the point guard role when we were on form, I admit my thoughts at one stage were to let him stay there to get Randy playing some shooting guard but we will have to see whether that materialises.

Towers coach Dave Lindstrom made the point that anyone can beat anyone in this league and that is why we will have to be on our game at Leopards on Friday.

Birmingham gave us two tough games around Christmas time and have strengthened since then, beating Chester recently, and then comes a Newcastle team who are well coached by Fab Flournoy and, on their day, can be as good as just about anything in this league.

For younger fans, check out our Junior Ballers events at Henry J. Bean's in West Street, Brighton. The first is a week on Saturday, from 4.30pm, ahead of the Chester game and includes half price kids food, competitions and a chance to meet the Bears team.

You can pre-book tables and match tickets on (01273) 626943 or at brightonbears.com