LEICESTER resume their Knockout Cup defence when they travel to Sheffield for their final away match in the Northern section on Thursday (7.30pm).
The Watling JCB Lions race at Owlerton before hosting the Tigers in the return back in the East Midlands next Thursday, and the outcome of those two meetings will determine which team progresses to the Final.
Belle Vue currently lead the standings on five points, but the Aces have completed their fixtures and can be caught by either or both of Sheffield and Leicester.
Sheffield are the current favourites as they took an aggregate point from their matches with Belle Vue, whilst the Lions missed out due to their 24-point defeat in Manchester.
But they did pick up an important home win on Easter Monday to get off the mark, so at the very minimum an aggregate point will be required against the Tigers along with a suitable race points swing assuming all clubs finish on the same total.
That means keeping things as close as possible will be essential in South Yorkshire in what is set to be a tough test, even though Leicester very much had the edge over Sheffield last season, knocking them out of the two major competitions.
Memories are still fresh of the hugely dramatic league play-off semi-final when the Lions came back from 14 points down at Owlerton to lose by just three, and that set them up to progress to the Grand Final in a last-heat decider back at home.
But Sheffield have regrouped for 2026 after a winter of uncertainty, and despite the drop in overall points limit, they have retained the bulk of their strength including Grand Prix star Jack Holder at No.1 and fellow heat leaders Josh Pickering and Chris Holder.
The only change from the side which completed last season was the signing of Luke Killeen in the Rising Star berth, with Nick Morris making the switch back to the Watling JCB Lions after making his comeback to the sport in Tigers colours.
Leicester manager Stewart Dickson said: “The performance at Belle Vue has given us a bit of a mountain to climb, but I didn’t want to over-react or go mad about it at the time.
“We won the home match, which was important being the first one of the season, but the bottom line is we are the holders of this particular trophy, and we’ve now got one hand having fallen off it with what I consider to be the toughest team in the group, Sheffield, still to race.
“We will need to go there and put on a full team performance and look to score as many points as possible to give ourselves a chance at home next week.”
SHEFFIELD: Jack Holder, Anders Rowe, Chris Holder, Leon Flint, Josh Pickering, Jye Etheridge, Luke Killeen.
LEICESTER: Ryan Douglas, Dan Thompson, Nick Morris, Kyle Howarth, Sam Masters, Drew Kemp, Joe Thompson.
