Stuart Thomson returns to his former club tomorrow night and he might just surprise a few people when he does.
The versatile Cheshire Phoenix forward arrived at the Northgate Arena a few weeks ago from Manchester Giants and when Matt Lloyd sends his Nix side into their BBL Championship derby battle at Wright Robinson College (7.30pm), Thomson may well return to haunt his former coach Jeff Jones.
Thomson was a key player in both the Nix’s victory over Newcastle Eagles and their close-run game against Leicester Riders and Lloyd believes there is a lot more to come from the 25-year-old, who has been released from both the Giants and Worcester Wolves this season.
“I knew what Stuart was capable of and when I heard that he was available we had to get in contact with his parties,” said Lloyd.
“He has been a great pick up for us but I still feel we haven’t seen the best of him yet.
“We saw sparks against Leicester and I didn’t use him enough in the second half really but he will be a great addition to the team for the end of season run-in.”
A win against the Giants will boost the Nix’s play-off hopes and there is a feeling that the team might just peak at the right time to make a run on the post-season.
“The guys have shown some good team basketball of late which seemed to start from the Worthing game and it has just carried on,” said Lloyd.
“We put in two fantastic performances over the weekend to beat Newcastle and to run Leicester to a nine-point loss was another great performance.
“The guys are looking forward to the final run-in now we are at full strength and anything could happen.”
Jones expects a difficult game tomorrow: “Chez Marks is who most people key in on and rightly so as he’s a tremendous scoring threat. But they have other players who can put up big numbers and Jerome Gumbs gives them a different type of scorer.”
