HEAD coach Paul James admitted it felt like Worcester Wolves had returned to pre-season training when new signing George Marshall arrived for his first day at the club.

But James is confident the “explosive” point guard will make an impact at Wolves as he prepares to make his debut in tonight’s British Basketball League fixture at Sheffield Sharks (7.30pm).

Worcester were forced to move quickly to snap up the American after Elvisi Dusha and Brandon Parrish resigned following a “breach of player rules” last week.

Marshall landed in the UK on Saturday and started training with his new team-mates on Monday ahead of the Sheffield clash.

The 25-year-old is the third player to join Wolves mid-season with Robert Gilchrist and Michael Ojo filling the voids left by departed duo Jermel Kennedy and Ashton Khan.

But James believes Marshall will give his side a “different dimension” in attack as they bid to secure their place in the end-of-season play-offs.

“It is always difficult when you bring someone in during the season,” James said.

“We seem to do it in two-month intervals.

“It’s almost like going back to pre-season. Point guard is a hard position to come in at such late notice and make an impact.

“But I am very confident that he will have an impact.

“He is an explosive, quick guard who will be able to speed up our offence a bit.

“He is fast at getting up and down the floor and is a guy who can get to the basket and score himself."

Chicago-born Marshall started this season at Bosnian side HKK Široki after a spell at Aris Leuuwarden in the Dutch League.

“George had his second session with us yesterday,” James added.

“We have not bombarded him with too much information so we have just given him one or two things to think about.

“But we want him to go out there, relax and play his game.”

Despite a turbulent week Worcester pushed Sheffield all the way in a 96-92 defeat at the University of Worcester Arena last Friday.

James reckoned his team, who have slipped to seventh position, were “unfortunate” to lose and said they were now looking to get off to an “aggressive” start in a bid to gain revenge over fourth-placed Sharks.

“We need to play for 40 minutes and not have those periods where we break down collectively,” James added.

“We played very well apart from three minutes at the start of the third quarter where we didn’t run any offence, control the tempo of the game or show composure which really cost us.

“It gave Sheffield a bit of confidence and after that it went down to who would score the last basket.”