LEICESTER look to make it a very positive week on the road when they make the trip to Sheffield for their latest ROWE Motor Oil Premiership fixture on Thursday (7.30pm).
The Watling JCB Lions pulled off an excellent 47-43 win at King’s Lynn on Monday and further success at Owlerton would leave them in a strong position in the top four.
The South Yorkshire circuit holds few fears for the Lions, whose record against the Tigers in the last year or so is excellent – much to the frustration of their hosts, who will be eager to bounce back on this occasion.
When the sides met at the Hydroscand Arena, Beaumont Park last month it was the Lions who raced to a 49-41 victory, so defending that eight-point advantage for the aggregate point is the first target.
Both teams have issues to deal with as Sheffield are set to be without No.1 Jack Holder on a long-term basis after he suffered a broken arm in a crash during the Wroclaw GP last weekend.
All at Leicester extend their best wishes to Holder, who is one of the top stars of the Premiership with the league as a whole being worse off for his absence.
Sheffield have elected to operate rider replacement for the Aussie at No.1, and that is a facility the Lions will also be using as they will unfortunately be without Dan Thompson for the meeting.
Thompson, who was a star of the win at King’s Lynn, is required to race for his Polish club Lodz who have a televised meeting at Rybnik.
Under the current averages the additional rides can be taken by everyone except No.1 Ryan Douglas, and former Tigers rider Kyle Howarth is likely to have a big part to play at reserve.
Sheffield have been short of home meetings recently, having not appeared on their own circuit for exactly a month having beaten leaders Belle Vue on May 25.
But the Tigers did give their season a major boost with a dramatic comeback win at Northampton last week, where they trailed by eight points with four races remaining only to recover for a 48-42 victory.
Leicester manager Stewart Dickson said: “It’s a blow to be without Dan, because he’s riding really well at the moment and he put in a great performance at King’s Lynn.
“But it’s one of those things we have to deal with, and to be fair Sheffield have a bigger issue with the loss of Jack Holder which is really sad to see.
“We need to focus on our own job, and if we perform as a team as we have done there before, we can make it work with rider replacement.
“We’re eight points up so in the worst case scenario we need to look to get the aggregate point – that would make it a good week, but if we could get the win it would be an excellent week!”
SHEFFIELD: Jack Holder R/R, Anders Rowe, Chris Holder, Leon Flint, Josh Pickering, Jye Etheridge, Luke Killeen.
LEICESTER: Ryan Douglas, Drew Kemp, Nick Morris, Dan Thompson R/R, Sam Masters, Kyle Howarth, Joe Thompson.
