LEICESTER have the opportunity to make it a Double-winning season in 2025 – and they now need their performance of the year at Ipswich on Thursday to achieve it.
The Watling JCB Lions head to Foxhall trailing by four points at the halfway stage of the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership Grand Final after a 47-43 defeat on an eventful night at the Hydroscand Arena, Beaumont Park.
That clearly leaves the Witches in the driving seat, although a 5-1 from skipper Max Fricke and Ryan Douglas in Heat 15 did at least swing the tie back towards parity rather than the possibility of the margin being at, or approaching, double figures.
It means 48 points is the target for the Lions in the second leg, a tough undertaking but one that is not impossible given their past record at the Suffolk circuit.
Leicester have won on two of their last four visits to Ipswich, and although the home side were admittedly suffering from injuries on both occasions, those results do confirm that Lions have riders who can consistently win races there.
The task will be to put together an all-round display for the duration of the meeting, and hopefully to put some early pressure on the Witches who will be facing high expectations from their home crowd as they look to clinch a first league title since 1998.
Following his crash at Leicester on Monday Adam Ellis has been ruled out of the second leg, although the good news is that scans have confirmed no serious injuries for the former British Champion.
In his absence, the Witches have called up their former rider Keynan Rew, who raced for Birmingham this season after two years at Foxhall, to guest, whilst Leicester are at full strength.
Lions manager Stewart Dickson said: “It was disappointing to lose the home leg. You need to be winning at home and the target was any win, because we wanted to take something down there. But we did get a lift with Heat 15.
“We had a couple of bits of misfortune on Monday, twice with clutch problems for Drew Kemp, and if we can cut out those errors and get one or two more points from a couple of other guys in the team, we still have a chance.
“They will be favourites obviously, but we can ride the Ipswich track pretty well, and you just never know. Things can change in speedway.
“If we can get off to a good start we can put them under pressure, and suddenly it will be them who are worried.
“I know these boys, we’ve lost twice at home this season and both times we’ve bounced back. We are very capable, I’m sure we’ll have a massive support down there and we certainly haven’t given up.”
IPSWICH: Emil Sayfutdinov, Danny King, Tom Brennan, Keynan Rew, Jason Doyle, Dan Thompson, Jason Edwards.
LEICESTER: Max Fricke, Luke Becker, Ryan Douglas, Kyle Howarth, Sam Masters, Drew Kemp, Joe Thompson.
