Bears v Stags Preview

 Bears aim for two wins in a row

Coventry Bears v Hemel Stags Match Preview

Sunday 15th July 2pm kick off Butts Park Arena

This weekend the Bears are at home against second from bottom Hemel Stags, and hopefully still in great form after their win away at London Skolars. That win ended a losing League sequence that stretched back to their win away from home at Hemel Stags.

That was back in March when the Bears won 16-22. Errol Carter, Dante  Morley-Samuels, Jason Bass and Harry Chapman each scored a try for the Bears that day in a tight game.

Since then, both sides have struggled with their form, and the Stags only victory this season was when they beat bottom club West Wales Raiders 12-48 in Wales. That victory put them on level points with the Bears for a short while, until the Bears win last weekend against fourth bottom club London Skolarssaw us establish a clear gap again.

The Bears aim now has to be to get some momentum going as they pull away from the stragglers at the bottom.

Hemel have a good set up, owning their own ground and clubhouse and having a good junior set up, but their recent results in the league have continued to be poor.

They have let in 90 against York, 68 against Bradford, 56 against Newcastle and 74 against Doncaster in the last couple of months, but thenthe Bears have also been on the receiving end of some big scores too.

Hemel and the Bears are old rivals going back to amateur days and the Stags will see their visit to the Butts Park Arena as a chance to better themselves and will be giving it everything on Sunday.

The Bears too see this as an opportunity to get a run of form going as they play Keighley at home the following Saturday and then play West Wales Raiders in a midweek fixture.

Dare we dream of four on the trot?

The kickoff has been brought forward to 2pm, and promises to be another memorable game.

Tom Tsang commented:

Last weeks win was great reward for our collective hard work and will to keep going despite some tough results. However it will be for nothing we dont back it up with another win at home against Hemel. The players know how important a second win is for us and putting some distance between ourselves and the Stags in the table standings. Hemel will also be targeting this match as a 'must win', so we will need to perform, as we know we can, for a full 80 minutes.

20 man squad (from):

Ash Bateman

Ben Stead

Brad Sheridan

Cam Stewart

Chris Barratt

Chris Vitalini

Dan Gover

Harry Chapman

Hayden Freeman

Jacob Ogden

James Guertjens

James Mason

Jason Bass

Kam Pearce Paul

Kie Sherratt

Mal Lloyd Jones

Paul Emmanuelli

Pete Ryan

Sam Davis

Zak Williams