It's an important few weeks for the Neptunes as they find themselves two games adrift from safety.
The good news for the Neptunes is that they do still have two games in hand over the Plymouth Cannons.
However the Neptunes face a tough task t
his Saturday when they play host to the London Mets who have only been defeated three times this season.
The Neptunes took a small side to face the Raiders on Saturday, the Neptunes were without all of their centres, 6ft 9ins Nathan Wilson (family bereavement), 6ft 8ins Ben Knight (birth of new daughter) and 6ft 6ins Cachia Reynoso (serving the third of his five-game suspensions).
Neptunes player/coach Mark Spatcher said after the game: "It was always going to be difficult, we fielded a team of perimeter players and basically got outmuscled at the basket.
"We did put some good attacking spells together on the break but we were always fighting an uphill battle.
"We shot poorly in the first half and could only manage 25 points, we normally can do that in a quarter.
"I think when you add that to the fact we struggle to compete on the rebounding front we probably deserved to be beaten by 20 points in the end.
"We need to concentrate this weekend. We ned to not be falling behind to easily, Ben and Nathan will be back so we'll have some size around the basket and if we can shoot the ball better then I'm sure we'll be in with a shout".
The Neptunes fell behind against the Raiders in the first quarter and were never able to recover as they went into the second 25-12 down.
An almost identical second period of play saw the Neptunes trailing 25-48 at the half.
The second half the Neptunes began to find their touch from outside as Spatcher and Pressie-Blue hit five three pointers between them.
Francis Tebo also began to get to the basket for consecutive scores, but it was too little too late for the Neptunes as they went down 97-75.
Top scorers for the Neptunes were Sherrad Prezzie-Blue with 26 points, Mark Spatcher and Francis Tebo gave support with 16 points a piece.
The Neptunes are back in action this Saturday when they take on London Mets at Lings Forum.
Tip-off is at 6.30pm, gates open at 6.00pm. Tickets can be purchased on the door, adults £6, child £4.
