PREVIEW: SHEFFIELD v BELLE VUE (ROWE MOTOR OIL PREM)

SHEFFIELD and Belle Vue are all set for a tense ROWE Motor Oil Premiership play-off semi-final decider at Owlerton tonight (Thursday) – with Leicester awaiting the aggregate winners.

The Aces came up with a big finish to win 51-39 at home on Monday, giving them a margin to defend which the history books suggest has generally proved to be sufficient at this stage of the competition.

The exception was in 2016 when Wolverhampton chased down an identical deficit in the second leg to defeat Poole and reach the Grand Final.

Both the Tigers and the Aces are unchanged from the first leg with Chris Harris again replacing the injured Tai Woffinden for Sheffield, whose home record against Belle Vue this season is strong.

Tigers star Josh Pickering said: “We will go into Thursday night with the winning mindset and mentality that we’ve had all season long and I’m very sure that with our home support there that we can excel.

“Of late around Sheffield, we’ve been turning everyone over and in our last few meetings, it’s been by some quite big margins.

“We turned this lot over by 22 points a few weeks ago so in our minds, 12 points is nothing. We’ll all rally together, we’re all being very positive and we’re all determined to get the job done.”

Belle Vue boss Mark Lemon said: “We’ve been in semi-final situations often enough to know what is riding on it, and we are fully aware we’ll have to be at our very best against Sheffield.

“We know previous league performances mean nothing, and the play-offs are where it is at, it is now or never. I know the boys have worked immensely hard to be here at this point of the season.

“With utmost respect for the Tigers, we can be the better team over the two legs and we’ll have to let our racing do the talking for us at Owlerton.”

SHEFFIELD: Jack Holder, Kyle Howarth, Chris Holder, Josh Pickering, Chris Harris, Jason Edwards, Dan Gilkes.
BELLE VUE: Brady Kurtz, Norick Blodorn, Jaimon Lidsey, Ben Cook, Dan Bewley, Antti Vuolas, Jake Mulford.

SCB Referee: Mick Bates