Cheshire Phoenix captain David Aliu apologised to fans after his side were unable to open up their new era at their new home with a victory.

In front of a near sell-out 1,400 capacity at the new Cheshire Oaks Arena on Sunday night, the Nix were beaten 87-75 by North West rivals Manchester Giants following a poor third quarter display.

While the occasion was one to savour, with the crowd one of the largest in recent memory for the Nix, who moved to their new home following 22 years at Chester’s Northgate Arena, skipper Aliu was bitterly disappointed with the showing of his side on the court and has demanded an improvement next time around.

“That’s what hurts me most because the fans were unbelievable,” said Aliu.

“It was a great atmosphere and it looked great and full, what more to give them than a win and we didn’t do that. I’m disappointed with that and I can only apologise for that.

“We didn’t play good enough and we stopped doing the things that were working. We only started playing hard at the end when the game was ahead of us, we should have played with that intensity from the beginning.”

LOOK: Images from the Nix's first competitive game at their Cheshire Oaks Arena home

Aliu, in his second season with Cheshire, hit 20 points and pulled in 12 rebounds in the loss, while new signings Jordan Williams and Akeem Ellis put up 25 points and 17 points respectively.

But it was the manner of their loss which irked Liverpudlian Aliu, with the 34-year-old forward, a seasoned BBL pro of 10 years, bemoaning a lack of effort at key periods in the game.

“Effort, you don’t need to click for that and there were times in the game where we weren’t putting in effort and it showed,” said Aliu, who played his college basketball in America at Morehead State University in Kentucky.

“We need to take a long hard look at ourselves. We played about 15-20 minutes of the whole game and that’s not good enough. We’re not going to win games playing half the game. That effort tonight is not enough. Everybody has got to give us more.”

The Nix are back in action on Saturday night when they travel to Bristol Flyers (7.30pm). They are back in action at the Cheshire Oaks Arena on Sunday, October 11 when they welcome Sterling Davis’ Glasgow Rocks side (5.30pm).