London United had a mixed bag of fortunes this weekend, losing their 4th league game of the season by 15 on Saturday away to Sheffield Arrows at 59-74 and then comfortably beating London Capitals at home to Sunday by 12 at 79-91.

United incredible bad run of injuries has contributed to their dip in League form with Pete Deppisch going down with a knee injury that kept him out of both weekends games. United's physio Alex Anzelmo is being kept busy having to work on Pawel Machnyia, Pete Deppisch, Pete Knechtel and Santa Ataha whilst Peter Van Elswyk made his return from injury on Sunday against Capitals.

Saturdays trip to Sheffield was an important game with both teams on the same 8-3 record. Sheffield were at full strength whilst United were without 4 starters in Van Elswyk, Deppisch, Cadogan and Ataha.

United started brightly and the teams traded baskets until a 6 point run in the 8th minute through Noah Brown on the foul line. United found themselves trailing by 4 at 15-19.

The second quarter saw United take bad shots to give Sheffield the chance to capitalise with easy breakaways giving them a half time lead of 41-27.

United concentrated on better shot selection and changed their defence to a zone as they stayed in the game and managed to claw back to an 8 point deficit in the 3rd quarter with Damian Reid converting 10 straight points, but the home team managed to stretch the lead back out to 11 at the end of the quarter. United's team play was more structured and they worked great looks for their inside players, however not one of United's players stepped up to hit shots regularly and the poor shooting percentage from under the ring and from the foul line was the main factor for United's loss. Top scorers for United were Reid 23, Jagodka 10 and Klocek 9, whilst Arrows American due of Brown and Kain contributed with 25 and 18.

On Sunday United got back to winning ways by beating local rivals London Capitals at Brunel. Capitals were vastly improved on the previous encounters with American import McCue hitting regularly from "downtown" as the scores were level at the half at 48-48.

United stepped up their defensive intensity for the start of the second half as they went on an incredible 21-2 run with 11 points from Jacek Jagodka.

Capitals then fought back admirably after Reid and Quashie were both fouled out of the game to bring the scores to only 6 points and Van Elswyk stepped up to bring the needed experience onto the floor that they had been missing since his ankle injury.

With United desperate to get back to winning ways, they managed to close out the game at 91-79 with Jagodka scoring 27 backed up by Mumuni 12 and Reid and Klocek on 10.

United are now placed 5th in the League with a 9-4 record whilst the teams above them have all lost 3. This leagues championship race is certainly much closer then previous years with no one outstanding team, and United coaches are hopeful of the teams above knocking each other off as the season moves on.

"Its now down to us to put together another run of winning games to give ourselves the chance to win the league" says Assistant coach Dave Schiller "Every one in the top 8 feels they are all in with a shout of winning this league now so the run in will be very interesting. For us its now down to whether we can stay healthy and get our key players back. van Elswyk returning from injury is a massive boost, but we now need the other casualties back as well."

United now travel to struggling Nottingham Knights on Saturday.

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