HEAD coach Paul James has urged his players to “complete the job” when Worcester Wolves resume their battle with Newcastle Eagles at the University of Worcester Arena tonight (7.30pm).

Worcester came agonisingly close to stunning second-placed Eagles in an 86-83 defeat at the Sport Central 10 days ago.

After allowing Newcastle to claim successive offensive rebounds in the closing moments James felt it was a “missed opportunity” to boost their play-off ambitions.

Wolves will now lock horns with Eagles again and James is determined to bounce back with a victory in front of their home fans.

“We fought well and got ourselves back into a position to win the game,” James said.

“But in the last minute-and-a-half we let ourselves down.

“We didn’t rebound the ball as well as we should have done in a couple of sequences where they had three or four offensive rebounds in a row.

“In the key moments down the stretch we were unable to get it done so it was a missed opportunity to move our way up the championship table.

“We are hoping we can do better tonight and complete the job.”

The narrow loss to Newcastle has left Wolves with work to do to secure their place in the end-of-season championships.

Eighth-placed Worcester occupy the final play-off spot but they are being chased by Cheshire Phoenix who are six points behind them.

And James reckoned his team would need to win three of their remaining six games to ensure they finish in the top eight.

“It is the tightest I have seen the league for many years going into the final few weekends of the season,” James said.

“I think that’s good for the league as it shows that teams are improving and more competitive across the board.

“But I would have preferred it if we had done our work earlier.

“It is what it is but it is great that we are still in charge of our own destiny and hopefully we can beat Newcastle tonight.”

Having had more than a week to prepare for their encounter with Eagles, James said his men had a chance to recover ahead of this weekend’s double-header.

Wolves visit London Lions on Sunday (4.15pm).

George Beamon will look to continue where he left off after scoring 22 points against Newcastle last time around.

And James said point guard George Marshall, who joined Wolves last month, had used the extra time between games to swot up on his team’s plays.

“He now knows his team-mates a bit better as well as our offensive sets and defensive philosophy so hopefully that’ll all come good for us,” James added.

“We have got six crucial games coming up and we are looking forward to them.”