Mike Brown admits it is about time he played on a winning team.

Now he is hoping the new Brighton Bears can provide that overdue bonus after the boost of back-to-back home wins.

Bears won just twice at the Brighton Centre last season but have already matched that tally by seeing off London Leopards and Derby Storm in the last fortnight.

Those wins will generate confidence for a tough forthcoming schedule, and that makes a welcome change for their longest-serving player.

Brown's one taste of playing for a team which broke even was back in his debut season of 1996/97, when he helped Manchester Giants to 22 wins out of 36 and a play-off spot.

They subsequently bowed out 2-0 in a best-of-three quarter-final to Sheffield.

Since then, despite his reputation as one of the country's top guards, he has endured one losing season apiece at Manchester and Milton Keynes, then two tough winters at Brighton.

No wonder he is looking forward to what might just be a brighter dawn after the shock of those opening weekend setbacks against Leicester and Thames Valley.

The 27-year-old from New York State said: "You always try and have the same approach as a player but, if you lose five or six in a row, it can affect you.

"I have been on poor teams which have had good coaches and good teams with poor coaches so I have seen both sides of it.

"When we lost our first home game to Thames Valley it was down to being tired. We played at Leicester the previous night and they had three guards who could score so we had to look after them.

"Then against Thames Valley we were in the game for the first eight minutes but they took advantage of the fact that we got tired.

"Since then we have conditioned ourselves and that part of the game will not happen again."

Brown felt that improvement was evident as Leopards were blown away a week later.

Bears also did enough to see off Derby, though he admitted it was not a vintage performance.

The man with the ever-changing shades of hair could be even more the golden boy after being given more freedom on court this season while new signings Randy Duck and Mark Jackson shoulder point guard responsibilities.

That puts Brown into the two guard role and it is one he relishes.

He said: "I do a lot in terms of defence and the coach has spoken to me about my role on offence. If the shot is there, that's what he wants me to do.

"I'm not handling the ball as much but I am happy with my role."

That will delight coach Nick Nurse, who just missed Brown at Manchester but has kept an eye on his BBL career.

Nurse said: "Mike Brown is a very good player who has been put in difficult situations almost his whole career.

"When he first came over he was a star player out of Providence College and he went into Manchester and was asked to lead a team which was in some turmoil.

"He went to Milton Keynes and it was tough and he has had two tough years here, not personally but team-wise.

"Mike's strengths are his great defensive abilities and he can shoot the basketball.

"I don't think he does some things that well. He is a better No.2 guard than point guard."

Now all that is missing is Brown's elusive British passport.

Its arrival will dictate what sort of player Nurse can sign to replace the departed Dave Wahl.

Brown was due to have British status by the start of this season.

A delay at the Home Office left him competing with Wahl and Wilbur Johnson for the two spots permitted to players who are from outside the European Community but do not require work permits.

That was fine when Bears had just two of their allowed three work permit Americans, but something had to give when Albert White signed. Wahl was the one to miss out and subsequently left the club.

Brown revealed: "I applied last year and it takes six to eight months but apparently they have got a backlog to February last year. It could be weeks or months, it is just a case of waiting."

Brian Owen brian.owen@theargus.co.uk