So here we go breaking new ground again at the Bears on a busy pre-Christmas weekend.

For the first time since I came here, we will be without one of our starters as we go to Birmingham on Saturday and host Thames Valley on Sunday.

Rico Alderson will sit out the first two of three games he must miss through suspension as a result of those back-to-back ejections at London Towers and Sheffield.

I know Sheffield have appealed against the penalty given to Justin Phoenix, their guy who was thrown out with Rico, but I will not be doing likewise.

We have decided to hold up our hand, say 'yes, there was some guilt there' and get it over with. Usually these appeals are just used as a matter of timing anyway. Sheffield probably wanted their guy available right now and lodged an appeal so the suspension would be delayed.

Our thinking is this is the best time for Rico to miss three games, the last of which will be against Towers next Saturday.

I would have appealed against his ejection at Towers, I certainly was not happy about it, but if we are unsuccesful we could risk losing Rico for the cup final against Chester on Janaury 12 and we certainly want to him to be around that day.

We go into the weekend in great heart after our 31-point home win over Leopards last Friday. What a great way that was to sign off at the Brighton Centre until the beginning of March.

I thought we looked impressive. Take it from me, Leopards are not a bad side. They proved that when they then beat Thames Valley.

It was nice to see us getting back to the high energy defence and aggressive offence we had produced earlier in the season. Everyone looked good going all the way down the bench.

Errol Seaman did well when he came on and Bud Johnston looked very comfortable, even though he was disappointed not to get on the scoresheet.

We will continue to play that way. There's no sense in us just sitting back. Our style of play will get us in trouble sometimes but I think that is the way we play best.

Of course we will need to develop the knack of winning even games and grinding out results. Teams will want to slow us down but we are capable of overcoming that as I think we proved in the cup semi-final against Towers recently. We will step up the tempo whenever we can though.

I guess the loss of Rico this week will lead to people looking at the strength of our line-up and wondering whether I will make another signing ahead of the January 31 deadline.

We did that last year and it certainly worked out well as we brought in Rodger Farrington who brought us an awful lot in the latter stages of the season. There is certainly a position available here but right now it is wide open. I do not have anyone in mind but something will happen. I usually come up with someone pretty good.

For the time being, it is with one man less than normal that we tackle these two games. I am excited about it. They are two games that, if we play to our capabilities, we should be able to handle, even without Rico.

I am confident we will do just that and give ourselves a chance to go on another run.

As this is the last column until Boxing Day, may I wish you all a happy Chistmas on behalf of the Brighton Bears. Why not make it even happier by turning out to cheer us to victory on Sunday? We will be pleased to see you.

GO BEARS