ADVANTAGE LIONS IN CUP SEMI

LEICESTER piled the pressure on Premiership KO Cup holders Sheffield with a 54-36 win in the first leg of their semi-final on Monday.

Ryan Douglas scored a 14+1 paid maximum for the Lions who had lost their previous home match against Birmingham but hit back in style over the Tigers.

Douglas completed his full house with a win over Jack Holder and Josh Pickering in Heat 15 whilst skipper Max Fricke picked up 10+1, and reserve Drew Kemp (8+1) was involved in two key 5-1s in the closing stages of the meeting.

The Tigers had seven race winners but were unable to find full consistency throughout the meeting, and they therefore face a recovery job in Thursday’s second leg. Holder top scored with nine points.

Lions boss Stewart Dickson said: “Every one of my riders deserves great credit, which they’ll get over the next day or so, because to beat Sheffield by 18 points is very good.

“I did bring them down to earth very quickly to say not to get ahead of ourselves because Sheffield could wipe that lead out in five heats on Thursday, but that was just to make sure they were on their toes!

“The track was certainly better than last week and the riders enjoyed it, and they should take the plaudits because they did the business against a very good team.”

Pickering (7) said: “We all started off on the back foot and they got off to a pretty handy lead straight up.

“Throughout the middle I felt like it was relatively close and then towards the end they finished strong.

“But they’ve still got to come to us on Thursday and we’ve been quite dominant at home this year. So hopefully we can turn things around, that’s the aim of the game, and I do feel collectively 1-7 we can do enough to do the job.”

Watch the action from Heat 5 (courtesy of CLEAN CUT SPORTS)

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Photo credit: RICHARD BOETTCHER