LEICESTER head to Sheffield for the first leg of their ROWE Motor Oil Premiership play-off semi-final on Thursday (7.30pm) with a mission to set things up for the return.
The Watling JCB Lions had been looking to build a lead when the tie was initially set to run at the Hydroscand Arena, Beaumont Park earlier this week, but the weather put paid to those plans.
With their opponents choosing to retain their own schedule in terms of staging their home fixture on Thursday, it means the Lions now must focus on another strong away-day performance.
And whatever they can achieve at Owlerton will make the task easier back on their own track next Monday.
Leicester have good results at Sheffield this season to reflect upon, starting in the KO Cup where they did far more than defend an 18-point first leg lead as they won 46-44.
Then in the first round of Premiership fixtures they went even better with a 48-42 victory in South Yorkshire which turned out to be the catalyst for the Tigers making team changes.
A third visit in mid-August resulted in a 50-40 defeat – the Lions’ only loss in their last ten matches in all competitions – although there were mitigating circumstances on that night with Luke Becker only just back from injury.
Manager Stewart Dickson won’t be putting any public targets on Thursday’s meeting, knowing the form his side can produce at home, but he has repeated the call for a full team performance.
Both sides are unchanged and at full strength, with the difference in the Sheffield side compared to previous encounters this season being the fact that Leon Flint is now in the main body of the side with Anders Rowe dropping to reserve.
Dickson said: “The message to the riders doesn’t change just because this the first leg of a play-off semi-final.
“The most important thing when you go away in the first leg of any competition is to stay in the tie, and it’s something we’ve done successfully over the last couple of years on most occasions.
“If we can do better than that then great, but it’s crucial that we leave ourselves in a position where we can win on aggregate at Leicester on Monday.
“We need all seven riders doing their jobs, and if that’s the case, along with hopefully no bad luck then I’m more than confident that we can achieve the type of result we need.
“We do know Sheffield are a strong side, and probably slightly stronger than when we met them earlier in the season, but we are in form too and I think it will be a close semi-final.”
SHEFFIELD: Jack Holder, Leon Flint, Chris Holder, Nick Morris, Josh Pickering, Anders Rowe, Jye Etheridge.
LEICESTER: Max Fricke, Luke Becker, Ryan Douglas, Kyle Howarth, Sam Masters, Drew Kemp, Joe Thompson
