Marin Yabsley has been told to keep his head up, his hands high and help Genesis Brighton Bears all the way to the play-offs.

Yabsley was a very disgruntled figure after playing just five first-half minutes in last Sunday's 78-73 comeback win over Leicester.

Although he had an ice pack on his knee as he watched the second half, coach Phil Waghorn has confirmed his back-up centre was fit to play if required.

Now, after a clear-the-air chat, Waghorn reckons Yabsley, along with forward Demaija Stewart, can play a key role off the bench.

And that is likely to start against the sizeable line-up fielded by Chester Jets in this weekend's double-header.

The teams meet at the Triangle tomorrow (7pm) and at Chester's compact Northgate Arena on Sunday, with Jets also taking on Sheffield tonight.

The weekend promises to be a trial of stamina, which should suit Brighton, but they need all eight men to be fit and on form.

Waghorn said: "There weren't any injury reasons why I left Martin out in the second half last week.

"We've spoken about it since. The main thing with Martin is he gets fouls too quickly or commits turnovers too quickly.

"If your starters don't do what you want them to do, you put your bench men in.

"But if they then don't do it either, you will always go back to your starters.

"Martin and Demaija are prone to getting fouls and that is the main reason they have to come off.

"I would argue they get a raw deal to some extent but they have to take a minute or two, get into the game and take it from there.

"Both of them can play a big role for us, especially against bigger teams like Chester.

"My advice to Martin is to keep his arms up and his feet on the ground and make people like Billy Singleton shoot over him.

"If he can do that without fouling that will make a big difference for us."

Singleton, Chester's burly player/coach, is likely to be a key player in the two weekend match-ups.

He also personifies what both teams can look to achieve as play-off outsiders.

Few people fancied Leiceseter to win the Championship in 2001 or Edinburgh to do the same two years later.

But they came from nowhere to take the big prize with Singleton a member of both teams.

The 37-year-old veteran from New York said: "With the calibre of players Brighton has got something like that is possible for them.

"There are quite a few teams in contention and Brighton are one of them.

"We are trying to get in a position to do a couple of things ourselves.

"It comes down to a combination of many things.

"Teams gradually come to a peak at certain times and that is a major part of it.

"The Leicester and Rocks teams were really high on talent. If you have talent like that you will get good results."

Waghorn has not ruled out a top-four finish for Bears but admits they could miss out on the play-offs altogether if they hit a bad run.

Eight teams qualify for the post-season but teams will be keen to finish in the top six to avoid a quarter-final trip to Newcastle or Scottish Rocks.

Waghorn admitted: "I'm always confidfent but I'm also realistic enough to know we could end up tenth.

"There are some teams we match up well with, some we don't and others I can't work out. I put Chester in the third category.

"We've got things to look at. They have got the ball away too easily when we've been pressing them for one thing.

"But I reserve judgment on the last time we played them because I think that game was strangely refereed."

Chester have added veteran James Hamilton to their squad since their 96-88 win at the Triangle three weeks ago.