Steve Vear insists time spent at the service of Worthing Thunder can help him reach his goal of European basketball.

Even when that time commitment includes sitting on a minibus to unglamorous places like Kings Lynn as Barker (Tarring) Thunder continue their EBL division campaign.

Thunder will be expect to beat a Lynn side playing one American short and struggling at the foot of the table when they go to Norfolk today (6pm).

Success would set Thunder up nicely for the tough games coming up which, as 22-year-old Vear admits, will shape their season.

The highly-regarded English playmaker said: "We've had good training this week, we've looked over the stuff we were doing before Christmas and, even though it's a long journey, we're confident because we play well away.

"We've had ups and downs so far but overall I think we are playing well and we need to keep that up.

"Anyone can beat anyone on any given day. It's a competitive league this year. London United, my old team, are up there but they haven't played too many tough opponents yet.

"Reading are a hard team to beat and we've got Sheffield next week."

Thunder are out of the Trophy and missed out in the National Cup.

With Reading unbeaten and having already won at Durrington in three different competitions, Worthing's best bet for honours could be to gain a decent play-off seeding and some momentum, then show their true form in the post-season.

They are buoyed by the return of Nick Oharabe, who attended both training sessions this week and is due to be in action at Kings Lynn today.

Oharabe missed games immediately before Christmas, including the league defeat to Reading when Thunder ran out of big men.

The possible return of Okolie Ugbana, who also trained this week, will further help in that area.

This is Vear's first season at Worthing but his last as a sports science student at Kingston University, which explains why he believes opportunities could be opening up ahead of him.

With its tight limits on non-EU players, the EBL gives English players a great chance to earn court time and the experience Vear is gaining at Thunder could help him look to sign a deal across the channel.

He said: "I want to play at the highest level I can.

"I'm still quite young and I want to play as many minutes as possible this season and learn from players and coaches. Europe is the big picture for me.

"When Chicken (Thunder coach Gary Smith) brought me to Worthing he wanted me to run the team.

"I've got to know the guys around me and I'm getting more confident."