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

SHEFFIELD do battle with Belle Vue tonight (Monday) in a big televised ROWE Motor Oil Premiership clash at Owlerton.

The Tigers currently sit two places and three points behind their Roses rivals in the standings, but they do have two meetings in hand.

Meanwhile an incentive for the Aces, who are four points adrift of leaders Ipswich, is that a fifth away win of the season would officially secure their play-off place.

Both sides are at full strength with the Tigers handing a debut to Jye Etheridge against his former club, having missed his opening scheduled appearances due to injury.

In total, Sheffield have seven fixtures remaining between now and the first week of September, and team boss Simon Stead feels that could benefit his side as they head towards the business end of the campaign.

Said Stead: “We’ve got a regular run of fixtures starting with Belle Vue and hopefully that will do Nick (Morris) and Jye, and the rest of the lads, the world of good ahead of the play-offs.

“Yes, we’ve still got a little bit of work to do before our place is mathematically confirmed inside the top four, but the three points we brought home from Birmingham last Monday saw us take another massive step towards doing that.

“We know much tougher tasks lie ahead, starting against Belle Vue. We beat them comfortably (57-33) at home earlier in the season but we’re expecting them to put up much more of a fight this time around.”

Belle Vue CEO Mark Lemon said: “It’s going to be a fascinating week for us going to both Sheffield and Ipswich. 

“We’ve got just five fixtures to go and we need to build momentum before the play-offs. 

“It’s always a pretty tough battle at Owlerton. We’ve got a good record there in the play-offs but not in the regular league fixtures. Of course it could be a rehearsal for the play-offs but it’s always a big clash so we need to put in a gritty performance.”

SHEFFIELD: Jack Holder, Anders Rowe, Josh Pickering, Nick Morris, Chris Holder, Jye Etheridge, Leon Flint. BELLE VUE: Brady Kurtz, Norick Blodorn, Jaimon Lidsey, Zach Cook, Dan Bewley, Tate Zischke, Jake Mulford.

SCB Referee: Mick Bates