Quotes from the Guildford finale and the debut season in BBL..

Quotes regarding the Guildford match and the season.

Head Coach Tony Garbelotto was far from downbeat following the narrow loss:

"We came with a game plan to play them possession for possession and slow the game down. Even with our depleted resources the guys nearly pulled it off. Farid Haif was immense and dominated the boards, Tarick Johnson showed yet again why he's been the league's outstanding player whilst LaTaryl Williams put in by far his best performance. Feggins and Capers played tough and hit made double figure contributions. I really can't fault any of them. We led for virtually the entire match and if anything were perhaps guilty of sitting on the lead a bit too much when we really needed to attack but we were limited by foul trouble and only 2 on the bench to call on. The "intentional" foul called on Marcus Knight going into the final minute of the match was incredibly harsh and really bailed out Guildford as it gave them 2 shots and possession. But after a tough first season, this shows just how good we can be given a full week of undisrupted practise."

Club Director and Adminstrator Chris Morris added:

"This ends a long tough season from which we have all learned a great deal. I see it as one we can look back on with pride and qualified satisfaction. On the positive side, we were competitive throughout. Most new franchises get blown away in their first BBL season....look what happened to the other new boys Worcester Wolves! That didn't happen to us. We were by far the smallest outfit in the BBL in terms of the resources available but still achieved our goal of reaching the play-offs with a predominately British player roster. Plus we were just one score away from beating the League and Cup winners and making it into the Final 4s. Tarick Johnson has been immense, top scorer in the BBL by some distance. I'd also single out Marlin Capers and Marcus Knight as giving everything to the cause. Farid Haif has also been a huge find.

On the negative side, constant problems with suitable training venues proved highly disruptive as Tony and Sam weren't able to prepare the team to their own very high standards. We were always going to be one of the "smallest" teams in the League, so the loss of Bryant Feggins for most of the season through injury hit us hard. The loss of highly experienced GB International Chris Haslam was the biggest blow of all. Had we been able to keep him for the whole season, I'm sure we wouldn't have been sweating on making the play-offs and would have stood a really good chance of making the Final 4s. I'm also sure that if Newcastle Eagles had signed Chris at the beginning of the season following his extended try-out period with them, they'd still be BBL Champions! Their loss was our huge gain.

We're all feeling pretty confident that we've laid the foundations to really kick on next year both on and off court. Let's hope Chester Jets survive and that a few more sides step up. A expanded league of 16 teams playing each other twice would be fantastic. Finally, I'd like to thank all our sponsors, supporters, and volunteers. The support we received from MoneyGram was invaluable and helped make SPACe a really fun and friendly home venue. Emily Clarke's match-day organisation was impeccable plus Warren Adams and Adam Lovelock on the mic (aka Snoop Dogg and Eminem) proved popular with both home and away supporters. The wins against Leicester in our first match and the overtime win over Chester will live in the memory for a long time.

..Here's to next season!"

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