MARIO Flaherty will make his Durham Wildcats debut tonight, as the BBL new-boys look to gain instant revenge over Newcastle Eagles.

Wildcats head coach Dave Elderkin gained international clearance for the forward in midweek after the former Houston Baptist Huskies player missed last week's 88-66 defeat in the group stages of the BBL Cup.

And Elderkin is hopeful that Flaherty will not be too eager when he finally makes his Wildcats debut.

Elderkin said: "It's great news to have Mario now registered. When someone is making his debut - he was disappointed not to be involved last weekend - we need to work with him and make sure he is not doing too much on his own and that he fits in with what we're doing team-wise.

"He's pretty athletic, we like that. It's a case of keeping him relaxed and making sure he plays his part in the debut."

Wildcats face a double header of away games, travelling to Sports Central tonight (7pm) before heading to Scotland on Sunday to face Glasgow Rocks.

Elderkin remains positive that Wildcats can acquit themselves well against the Eagles after impressing at Newton Aycliffe last week.

"We've looked at the video of last week's game, their defense was absolutely outstanding. They gave Ralph (Bucci) a really hard time and we're been working on how to counteract that.

"We'll be working towards getting a result tonight. Obviously I'm not going to say we'll win it, but we can certainly improve on how we did last weekend.

"There were only 22 points in it. The workrate was good, but we were sloppy and (Paul) Gause is high on the stats for steals. We gave him so many soft options so we're aware of that. Darius Defoe was their most effective player against us, that match-up could well be Mario's.

"We've gone in with a different philosophy about how we're going to play them, and fingers crossed that pays off for us."