Colin O’Reilly was pleased with the character shown by his Cheshire Phoenix side in the win over Worcester Wolves on Sunday but stressed that they shouldn’t need to experience a letdown before putting on a good show.

The Nix put in their best performance of the season on Sunday as they claimed a 102-79 success over the Wolves at the Cheshire Oaks Arena, just 24 hours after falling to a disappointing 67-61 defeat at Surrey Scorchers.

And head coach O’Reilly says his Cheshire team can ill-afford any more displays such as the one on Saturday night if they are to compete with the top sides in the BBL this season.

“Sunday was a good team performance from us but there was still a lot of disappointment about how we played on the Saturday,” said O’Reilly.

“Saturday wasn’t the type of performance we were looking for and the challenge for us now as a group is to become more consistent this season.

“But the performance on Sunday was much improved and it showed great character from the guys to bounce back, but I told them that they shouldn’t need a disappointment to spur them on, they should be going out hard to compete from the off.

“We have to make sure we don’t let things like the Surrey game happen again, though.”

Cheshire Phoenix players celebrate their success over Worcester Wolves

O’Reilly, appointed head coach in the summer following the departure of John Lavery, had to rebuild his side from scratch and the Nix were handed a tough opening to their season.

They currently sit eighth with a 2-4 record but O’Reilly believes he has seen enough to suggest that they are on course to achieve their objectives of competing with the best this season.

“We have been together as a group for a few weeks now so that whole excuse about us being new and still getting used to each other doesn’t work now,” said the Irishman.

“But we are getting better and showing signs of progress and I think that we are where I hoped we would be at this point and we have something we can build on now moving forward.

“There are still a lot of things we need to improve but they are a good bunch of guys who are willing to learn and we are making strides forward.”

Cheshire are back in action in Ellesmere Port on Sunday (5.30pm) when they welcome Plymouth Raiders to the Cheshire Oaks Arena.