Basketball: Charles makes a case for defence.

NEWCASTLE Eagles star Charles Smith may have had an eight-week injury lay-off, but he insists he and his teammates have no concerns going into the first phase of the BBL Play-offs tonight.

The BBL veteran, who fractured his kneecap at the beginning of March, made an impressive return on Sunday as he played more than 20 minutes and scored 17 points.

The Rider University graduate is adamant the Eagles have nothing to fear when they entertain Skouson Harker's Worcester Wolves at the Metro Radio Arena.

"I think our chances are great, especially if we come out and play really defensive because their team is really offensive," he said. "We all expect to get through though. This is the end stretch and everybody wants to perform in the play-offs.

" We know exactly what we need to do. It's just about executing the game plan.

"We haven't done that all season and that's maybe why we struggled a tiny bit. We need to put longer stretches together and do well. But in the last four games we have started to bring it together.

"It's positive that we can perform like that in these type of situations and dig out wins. I don't think we should have been in the position in the first place."

The Eagles have gone the distance in their past four games, needing energy-sapping overtime to grind out wins against Everton, Guildford, Milton Keynes and Sheffield.

Smith expressed his frustration at being able to contribute little so far to the end-of-season run-in.

"I played on Sunday and it was all right," he said. "I probably played more minutes than I expected, but I felt fine. It's been almost eight weeks since I fractured my kneecap and it's been really hard.

"It's been hard not being able to do anything, especially when I felt like it was getting better and you have to carry on doing weight training and not being able to jump straight back in to it. Watching from the side, I can see that for everybody there has been ups and downs."

As well as Smith, the Eagles will welcome back three-point specialist Jeremy Hyatt as he is also restored to full health. But in the absence of two key players, Fabulous Flournoy's men have raised the bar to ensure they clinched the league title.

Smith said: "A lot of the players have stepped up their game. They've filled the gap that I have left behind. In fairness they have taken full advantage of my injury and the opportunity that it has presented.

"But fighting for my position is not the most important thing right now. I need to catch up with them and it's more about me fitting in with them.

"I felt like I did pretty well on Sunday, and it's usually whoever is playing the best gets to play the game. I'm not coming back into the team expecting to get immediate court time."