SWINDON Shock player-coach David Colclough is hoping his side can lay down a marker with a win in their first home fixture in Division Three South when they host Essex Blades today.

In their first fixture, Colclough’s troops suffered an 85-71 defeat in Northampton last Sunday, but were left with only one substitute after Dominik Sajovic pulled out on the morning of the game, while Spencer Wells was absent because of a back injury.

Colclough is set to be boosted by the return of Wells, plus point guard Antonio Wilburn, who has now registered to play after visa issues.

“The (last) weekend was frustrating because we thought we had a really good team going out to play,” he said.

“Then Dom pulled out because he hurt his foot, it was just chaos and we ended up with six players and two of them were younger guys.

“Ideally we’d have 12 players and we will hopefully have 12 players when we play at home this weekend.

“Considering we only had six and two of them don’t really play, I thought we did really well.”

It is the first time the club will come up against the Essex Blades and Colclough has taken to YouTube to get a head start on what he can expect at New College Sports Hall (2pm).

“We should have all of our horses back for the game too, Antonio will join us and Spencer’s back is a little bit better,” he added.

“We lost Alistair Tilney and Lee Hobbis to holiday last week as well so we.

“I’ve gone through the videos of them on YouTube, and that has been my studying this week so we have a good walkthrough of their offence and how they play defence.

“I love it when teams post all of their stuff on YouTube because it means we can have a look at them before we play them.”

The club’s development side, who play in the WEBBA Division Three, won away to Speedwell Pirates 55-38 in their last match.