PREVIEW: LEICESTER v SHEFFIELD (ROWE MOTOR OIL PREM P/O S/F)
LEICESTER and Sheffield battle it out for the one remaining place in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership Grand Final when they meet at the Hydroscand Arena, Beaumont Park tonight (Monday).
The first leg of the play-off semi-final last week turned into an epic encounter at Owlerton with the Tigers racing into a 14-point lead only to see that pegged back by the Lions in the closing stages.
That means Sheffield take a 46-43 advantage into the return fixture, with Ipswich awaiting the aggregate winners in the Final.
The Lions are at full strength and unchanged, but the Tigers are without Nick Morris after his crash in Heat 14 of the first leg, and they have booked Oxford’s former World No.3 Maciej Janowski to guest.
Leicester boss Stewart Dickson said: “I was obviously a lot more relieved at the end of the meeting on Thursday compared to what I was, but I don’t think this tie is finished by any means.
“Sheffield can do what Leicester did and run us really, really close, or turn us over, so my boys need to be on their game.
“I mean all seven, not just four or five. I need all seven on it. There were a couple of boys who were disappointed with their performances on Thursday, but I said to them, ‘you now have a chance to put it right on Monday night, and give us an even better chance of getting through.’
“If we can get seven scorers rather than what we had on Thursday, I think we’ve got a really good chance – but my final words will be, it’s not over yet!”
Sheffield skipper Josh Pickering said: “Our backs might be against the wall a little bit, but we’ve battled on all year and we’ve got results when sometimes people don’t expect us to.
“Not many predicted us to go to Ipswich the other week and beat them at home with their full strength side.
“We’re going into Heat 1 at Leicester with a three-point lead – and a lead is a lead, we could be in a much worse situation.
“There’s still 15 heats of racing to go, we’ve got plenty to race for and we’ll be doing everything we can.”
LEICESTER: Max Fricke, Luke Becker, Ryan Douglas, Kyle Howarth, Sam Masters, Drew Kemp, Joe Thompson.
SHEFFIELD: Jack Holder, Leon Flint, Chris Holder, Maciej Janowski, Josh Pickering, Anders Rowe, Jye Etheridge.
SCB Referee: Phil Griffin
