Gary Smith has told his Worthing Thunder team not to become victims of the EBL's rising force

Worcester Wolves head to Worthing tonight looking to hand Thunder a third straight defeat in division one and continue their own private success story It is part of a busy weekend for Smith's men, who kicked things off with a training session last night.

They also host London Capitals in the last eight of the Natiional Cup tomorrow (8pm).

Worcester are making their way through the leagues and were division two play-off winners last season.

Smith knows a win at Worthing, one of the perennial forces of division one, would be a major feather in their cap.

The Thunder coach said: "They are a solid unit and they will come here and try and make a statement to the rest of the league.

"I've been talking to the Plymouth coach Gary Stronach and he reckons they are tough.

"They can go with two seven-footers and no one else less than 6ft 5ins if they want to. They've got guys from Sheffield and Birmingham and they are coached by Jim Smith, who was a good shooter and has built a team in the same mould.

"We can't afford another defeat. We've struggled in the last two games. We haven't played with intensity."

Among the Worcester threats is Rob Clarke, a 7ft centre who has played lower division basketball in Spain and was linked with Brighton Bears in the summer.

Smith missed last week's 14-point league defeat at Reading but subjected himself to three viewings on video this week.

Actually, make that two-and-a-half viewings. He didn't quite make it all the way through the last time.

He said: "From what I saw from watching the tape Reading didn't change anything last week from when we beat them by more than 20 earlier in the season.

"They kept up their intensity and whatever they did, they did it well.

"I got a call at half-time saying we were down by four but I wasn't worried because we were down at half-time in the first game there.

"Then when I got the next call we were down by 17 and my heart sank.

"At least our guys picked it up a bit at the end because Reading were going to blow them out.

"It means we need to beat them by 14 or more at our place and we can do that."

Capitals will offer Thunder's big men a battle of the boards tomorrow.

They are run by experienced guard Malik Givens, who has done the EBL rounds and played for South Coast in the Hosana Summer League.

Sam Mead is unavailable tonight but otherwise Thunder are at full strength.

Smith has revealed he was close to signing the latest addition to the BBL.

DJ (David) Harrison has joined Bears' arch rivals Chester Jets.

Smith failed to agree terms with Harrison in the summer but rates him highly, saying; "He can post up and he gets up and down the court."