GLASGOW ROCKS can take a significant step towards a BBL Trophy final on home soil tonight when they face Cheshire Phoenix in the first leg of their semi-final with the English team – and head coach Gareth Murray insists his players are up for the challenge.

The Rocks find themselves in the midst of a gruelling fixture list, with tonight’s match with Cheshire and the return leg on Sunday capping off a run of four games in eight days.

A league encounter with London Lions on Friday night has been sandwiched in between the BBL Trophy semis and with the final of the competition being held at Glasgow’s Emirates Arena, Murray knows his players will not suffer from a lack of motivation.

The Rocks have reached the final of the BBL Trophy just once. Back in 2014, Murray was part of the side that narrowly lost out to Worcester Wolves in Glasgow and the 37-year-old knows just how special it would be to reach another final with the full backing of the home crowd.

“We missed an opportunity to make the BBL Cup earlier in the season when we lost to Manchester but this one is a bit bigger for us,” the player/coach admitted. “The final is in Glasgow so it’s a little bit more important for us and we would have more fans behind us if we made the final.

“Cheshire are playing good basketball right now and they’re a very balanced team. They’ve got everybody healthy, which is a big plus.

“Playing a game like that at home would be huge for us. I played in one before and the crowd, the game itself – being in Glasgow was just great for the team.

“We ended up coming up against a great Worcester team who were probably the best team in the league that year. Playing in Glasgow, you have the majority of the crowd behind you and you’re at home. We lost by seven points but it was a good experience.

“Getting back to that would be great for the whole club; bringing in new people, new sponsors – everything you can think of.”

Heading into tonight’s match, the Rocks have not had their misfortunes to seek. Injuries to important players have taken their toll on Murray’s squad and a relentless run of fixtures means there is little time to draw breath.

Much of the period in between games is being spent poring over video analysis of previous matches and upcoming encounters. There is not much else the Rocks can do to manage the heavy run of games. “It’s tough, but this is why we play,” says Murray. “Fatigue will come into it but the guys want to play.”

With Cheshire sitting in second place in the BBL Championship and Glasgow second from bottom, the Rocks’ player/coach accepts that his side are in for a stern examination over the two semi-finals – but he remains convinced that his team have what it takes to triumph.

Murray explained: “They have guys with a lot of experience of big games, guys who have played in the league for a few years, young guys who are new to the team – they’re a tough team and they’re playing good basketball just now.

“We’ll have to do things that will get them out of sync but it’s two games. We can’t just throw everything in the basket for the first leg. We have to think about Sunday as well.

“We’ve been talking about how we can do things differently and how we can guard against different situations. They’re a team that are on the rise – they started this season at one [win] and seven [defeats], now they’re sitting on 10 and eight. They’ve really turned it around. We beat them once in the Cup already this year but they got the better of us in the league. It won’t be easy for us.

“We can beat Cheshire for sure, I’ve no doubt about that. It’s whether we play the type of basketball that we can and execute our game plan.

“It’s not just 40 minutes – we’re thinking about it as one 80-minute game. There are eight 10-minute periods and we’ve got to try and win every one.

“It’s a tricky one and throwing in that London game makes it that wee bit harder, but that’s what we’ve been dealt so it’s now about how we deal with it.”