Leopards went into their encounter against top of the Southern Conference Birmingham Bullets without Jason Kidbrough, who was injured the previous weekend at Leicester.

The home fans at Brentwood were greeted with the news that Peter Deppisch had been cut from the squad and replaced with John Tresvant.

Without Kidbrough, coach Donewald went with Steve Ogunjimi at point guard and he soon got into his rhythm hitting two three point shots to send the Leopards on an early 10-0 run, before the Bullets called a time-out.

With Bullets' England star Yorick Williams sitting on the bench, after collecting two early fouls, the Leopards consolidated their lead and finished the quarter ahead 18-10.

At the start of the second period, Robert Youngblood collected his second foul but the Bullets were unable to capitalise as they missed a succession of foul shots, at this stage making just 1-10 from the line.

Donewald chose to give his bench extended court-time in what was increasingly becoming a physical game under the basket.

This allowed Bullets Justin Phoenix to dominate in the key and as a result, the Birmingham side destroyed the Leopards' early lead and surged ahead.

The second quarter saw a dismal period of basketball.

The Leopards managed only two points in the quarter and in total went over 10 minutes without troubling the scorer.

With the Leopards unable to penetrate Donewald was forced to bring Youngblood back on court, but he was almost immediately called for a third foul which looked suspiciously like a case of mistaken identity.

As the players left for the locker room at half time Leopards was trailing by nine points (20-29) and as Donewald left the arena he was given a 'technical foul' by the officials, as a result the third quarter started with the Bullets' Nigel Lloyd standing on an empty court shooting two free throws to extend their lead to 11 points.

After a pointless 10 minutes, a relieved crowd cheered as a Dave Attewell jump shot restarted the Leopards' side of the scoreboard.

However, almost immediately, referee, Bruce clashed with Youngblood.

He called Youngblood for his fourth foul and appeared to say something that clearly incensed the Leopards' player, and as Youngblood moved towards the commissioners' table to complain, the referee issued two technical fouls against the Leopards' captain to eject him from the game.

The dismissal of Youngblood sent the game into a familiar pattern; at present Leopards are only able to secure a winning position down the stretch with Youngblood's presence at both ends of the court.

Stripped of his captain's services, Donewald chose to give his bench a greater role, possibly calculating that the game was out of reach.

Ironically, the game restarted with six free throws yet the Bullets only scored two, and the Leopards ended the third period trailing by 17 points with only Brandon Brantley emerging as an offensive threat.

Early in the final period the Big Cats made a spirited attempt to cut the Bullets lead. It was trimmed from 17 to 13 and then to eight and finally to six points.

By now the Leopards had to stop the clock to give them time but the Bullets using Lloyd and Williams to bring the ball up court discovered their touch from the foul line and in the final minute the Midlands side pulled away yet again to finish 88-72 victors.

Leopards have now lost four successive matches and Donewald talked to England star Yorick Williams after the game, he must have pondered on the fact that the squad needs strengthening.

The truth is, outside the current starting five, there are simply not enough points on the bench as the second quarter showed.

He now has 10 days before the derby game with the London Towers to put together a game plan to defeat the Leopards' fiercest rivals.

The Leopards' points scorers were: Kenya Capers 20, Brandon Brantley 19, Mark Quashie 10, Steve Ogunjimi 8, Dave Attewell 7, Robert Youngblood 4, Andy Mathurin 3, and John Tresvant 1.

Leopards next home match is this Sunday, December 19 when the opponents are Chester Jets (tip off at 5 pm at the Brentwood Centre).

Before the big game, there will be a warm-up match when some of the cream of local boys basketball will be on shown when Brentwood Fire Under 14's take on Great Baddow from Chelmsford (tip off 2.30 pm).

Saturday sees the Leopards travel to South London to the National Sports Centre, Crystal Palace, to take on the London Towers. This match, game two of this season's series, tips off at 6.15 pm.

For those not travelling to support the Big Cats the game is being shown live on Sky Sports.

Anyone travelling to the game is advised to book tickets in advance as this game has sold out in recent seasons.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.