Will Johnson will lead Brighton Bears' bid for a rare victory tomorrow even though he is less than fully fit.

The powerful forward has been unable to train this week after suffering an achilles injury in Bears' home defeat against Birmingham Bullets nine days ago.

With skipper Michael Brown still sidelined by a torn thigh muscle, Johnson was pressed into service against Southern Conference leaders London Towers last Saturday and top-scored with 22 points.

But Bears lost 81-71 despite levelling the scores at 68-68 with three minutes remaining and go into tomorrow's tie against the side immediately above them in the league looking for their first win since November 17 after losing 13 of their last 14 games.

Coach Mark Dunning said: "We are nursing Will along at the moment. His achilles is really sore and he's done no training this week, but he'll definitely play tomorrow and we will need him."

Bears head to Bracknell trying to avenge their heaviest defeat of the season back in October when Tigers toppled them by 29 points in Brighton's opening home game. Their hopes have improved after Tigers lost influential American forward Chandler Bingham before Christmas. He has returned to the States and is unlikely to be replaced.

"Bingham not being there opens the door a little bit for us,"" added Dunning.

"It's a game we can win, but at the risk of sounding like a broken record we have to bring our best to the court for 40 minutes and not just play in patches, I've been saying that all season.

"Last week we were level with the best team in the country with three minutes to go and the game was there to be won. But we scored three points and they scored 13 even though we had two turnovers. Our shot selection in our next three offences was terrible.

"I'm not saying we would have won, but the players have lost the ability to get things done on the floor and it becomes harder to get it back with every loss we have."

Meanwhile Bears have appointed Richard Parker on a part-time basis to try and raise the profile of the club throughout Sussex.

The 43-year-old performed a similar role as General Manager with Birmingham Bullets for 17 months.

Bears' owner Romek Kriwald said: "Richard's job will be to promote the club, it's a job that has not really been happening this season."