DIRECTOR of basketball Paul James has challenged his Worcester Wolves team to string a run of victories together.

Although Wolves are third in the table with five triumphs from six matches, they are yet to win more than two games in a row in all competitions.

Defeats against Manchester Giants, who they entertain at the University Arena tonight (7.30pm), and Bristol Flyers in the BBL Cup a fortnight ago have dented their progress.

But James, whose side also visit Surrey United tomorrow (7pm), remains upbeat and believes there are plenty of positives.

“We need to put a string of wins together,” he said. “We are five and one at the moment so we’ve been doing ok but we haven’t really hit our straps yet.

“It would be nice to gain some momentum and win a few games in a row to build that confidence.

“It’s really down to the players to put the effort in on game day that they are putting in during training. Without that effort, we can lose games.

“I think the fans are still waiting for us to explode as a team but we’re still up there and being competitive.

“We’re better off being five and one than one and five. We’re still there fighting, we know there’s still a lot of work to be done but I still feel we have the players to be able to do that.”

Wolves, who returned to winning way against London Lions last Friday with 23 points from Robert Thurman, lost 93-83 in Manchester last month and James is determined to avoid a repeat at Hylton Road tonight.

He said: “They are the only team to have inflicted defeat on us in the Championship. I feel like we didn’t play very well in that game and we need to put that story straight.

“Revenge is a strong word but we didn’t do ourselves justice up there. I don’t like losing but if we go out there and play the best we can and the other team is better on the night, then fair enough. If we don’t put in that performance it’s harder to take.

“Hopefully, the win against London will spur us on because we’ve shown what we are capable of if we put our minds to it and everybody comes to play.”

Tomorrow’s Surrey match has been brought forward from January as part of a fixture reshuffle due to the BBL Trophy final in Glasgow being put back two weeks to Sunday, March 22.

Victory would give Wolves the head-to-head record over United following last month’s 82-68 success at the arena.

James added: “We played them here and it was only in the fourth quarter when we started to get away from them.”

Lithuanian centre Donatas Visockis is a doubt after turning his ankle in training.