PREVIEW: LEICESTER v IPSWICH (ROWE MOTOR OIL PREM PO SF)
LEICESTER face Ipswich in the second leg of their ROWE Motor Oil Premiership play-off semi-final tonight (Thursday) with the tie perfectly poised at the halfway stage.
The Witches won 49-41 at Foxhall on Monday with the Lions clawing back an advantage which at one stage had been up at 16 points.
They will race to a conclusion in the East Midlands with the teams unchanged from the first leg as Leicester again use rider replacement for Ryan Douglas whilst Lewis Kerr guests for Craig Cook.
Ipswich again track Jan Kvech, Tom Brennan and Ashton Boughen as guests, and boss Ritchie Hawkins has shuffled his riding order with captain Danny King moving to No.2 and Adam Ellis switching to No.5.
Leicester manager Stewart Dickson said: “We need the Leicester crowd more than ever to turn up in their numbers, make lots of noise, get right behind us and create that atmosphere that we know our riders feed off.
“This is a huge meeting for the club, one of the biggest in our history, and we know the rewards that lie ahead if we can score the 50 points.
“We have given ourselves a chance after Monday, we could have been facing a much larger deficit, but we are under no illusions – it is still going to be tough and Ipswich will come out firing.”
Hawkins said: “We have the same team out on Thursday and have swapped Danny and Adam around for the night. Truth be told, I had a premonition that was going to be the best way to go to help us win the meeting, so there you go.
“We start from scratch on Thursday will look to win the meeting. We have had a lot of success there in the past and have riders that can win races there and perform well there.
“Everyone in the team is up for getting themselves another two meetings by getting to that Grand Final.”
LEICESTER: Max Fricke, Richard Lawson, Sam Masters, Luke Becker, Ryan Douglas r/r, Lewis Kerr, Sam Hagon.
IPSWICH: Jan Kvech, Danny King, Keynan Rew, Tom Brennan, Adam Ellis, Ashton Boughen, Dan Thompson.
SCB Referee: Christina Turnbull
