Matt Lloyd will pit his wits against the top two coaches in the BBL Championship this weekend.

But the young coach refuses to be daunted by the prospect of going up against Newcastle Eagles’ Fab Flournoy and Leicester Riders’ Rob Paternostro.

The Phoenix head to Sport Central to face the Eagles tomorrow night before hosting the Riders on Sunday at the Northgate Arena (5.30pm).

“Our problem against the Eagles in the past hasn’t really been in our gameplan, it has been the fact that we have always got off to a slow start against them,” he said. “That is never helpful so hopefully we can overcome that this time round.

“As for Leicester, they are a very tough team and have been playing some real tough basketball of late. They are at the top of the table for a reason but we matched up well against them last time, forcing the game into overtime on the road.

“Since then they have added Anthony Rowe who gives them some real firepower and balance but we have to match them for toughness.”

The Phoenix blew out Worthing Thunder 106-61 on their way to the BBL Trophy semi finals last Saturday and Lloyd said the win was a big boost for the players.

“They proved that they can play together as a unit and play tough defence,” he said. “We took our foot off the pedal during the later stages of the fourth period but to keep a team that low in scoring proves we can play hard defence. What we need to do is do that against the teams around us and above us in the league in order to push for a play-off spot.

“Having Newcastle out of the competition is definitely helpful but any team is capable of winning this tournament.”

But the quarter final win did not hide the fact the Phoenix also dropped out of the BBL Championship play-off places last weekend.

So are the players prepared to dig in for the final push?

“Yes, the team are ready,” said Lloyd. “Having Chris and Stuart there allows the guys to play harder as they have more cover so we can get back to our best.”