ADVANTAGE LIONS

LEICESTER put one foot into the Championship Grand Final with an impressive 53-36 win at Edinburgh at Armadale on Friday.

The Lions will look to complete the job when the sides meet again at the Paul Chapman & Sons Arena tonight (Saturday).

Their heat leaders dominated at Armadale, limiting the Monarchs to just three race wins on their own circuit, with Richie Worrall (13+1) and captain Kyle Howarth leading the scoring.

Josh Pickering reached double figures for the hosts (10) but he and Sam Masters were on the receiving end of a 5-1 in the last race as the visitors built a substantial first leg advantage.

Leicester boss Stewart Dickson said: “It was certainly a better performance than Wednesday (at Poole), that’s for sure – we were looking for a reaction to that.

“I don’t think Edinburgh raced to what they’re capable of, because they had a fantastic result last Friday (against Redcar) and I think we caught them on a bad night.

“But obviously from a Lions perspective we’ve got a lead heading into Saturday night, and now we’ve got to finish the job off.”

Edinburgh manager Alex Harkess said: “I’m very disappointed and it was a very poor performance by us.

“We are not as bad a team as we looked tonight, we can’t be or we would never have beaten Redcar last week. Even when we gated we were being out-fought round the first corner.

“Leicester were excellent but we are better than we looked tonight, and I hope we can get a better score away from home – I believe that is possible.”

LEICESTER: Nick Morris, Connor Mountain, Richie Worrall, Dan Thompson, Kyle Howarth, Joe Thompson, Max Clegg.
EDINBURGH: Sam Masters, Lasse Fredriksen, Kye Thomson, Paco Castagna, Josh Pickering, James Sarjeant, Jacob Hook.

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Photo credit: JACK CUPIDO