COACH Mark Dunning still believes his rock bottom Brighton Bears can sneak into the end of season play-offs.

But he admits that tomorrow night's trip to Milton Keynes Lions is a "must win" game for his side.

Bears are six points adrift of Lions, who currently occupy the fourth and last play-off place in the southern conference, and they have also played three games more.

"We're definitely not out of the play-offs yet, but if we were to go eight points behind Lions then it would make things very difficult," said Dunning.

Bears' win over Lions back in October, when over 3,000 fans packed the Brighton Centre and thousands more watched on TV, seems a long time ago now.

They have won just once in ten league games since and have been plagued by inconsistency.

"We are just not able to put a 40 minute game on the floor at the moment," admitted Dunning. "Last week against Manchester we led by one at half-time but they absolutely blitzed us in the second half.

"That is a problem for us right now and one we are trying to address, but it is very hard."

Lions' confidence is sky high after they toppled southern conference leaders London Towers last weekend and they are also boosted by the return of coach Tom Hancock who has been back in America since new year on family business.

Bears will be at full strength.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.