PREVIEW: SHEFFIELD v BIRMINGHAM (ROWE Motor Oil Prem)

SHEFFIELD captain Josh Pickering is calling on his side to win their opening ROWE Motor Oil Premiership clash with Birmingham tonight (Thursday) for the absent Tai Woffinden.

Tigers were rocked by news of Woffinden’s crash in Poland last weekend, and they will operate rider replacement in the Owlerton opener against the Brummies.

Pickering said: “When Tai got injured last year, that was a massive loss for us because he’s a big hitter scoring-wise, and he’s a big character to have around in the pits.

“He’s also a good, personal friend to quite a few people at Sheffield, including myself, so it has been a really rough few days.

“We’re up against it, especially tonight without him and only having six riders and R/R, but we have to give each and every meeting our full focus and we’ve got a job to do.

“I know we’re going to come together even more as a team, we’ve got a great bunch of boys, and our season starts here. Let’s win it for our mate, let’s win it for Woffy!”

The Brummies travel with increased optimism after a promising performance at Leicester in the KO Cup last week, in contrast to a heavy defeat at home in the first leg of that tie.

Former Tigers racer Tobiasz Musielak leads the visitors at No.1, whilst Jason Edwards lines up at reserve having ridden for Sheffield last year.

Manager Chris Adams said: “I’m really looking forward to our first league match.

“We still haven’t hit form yet but I think we saw at Leicester what we are going to be capable of if our heat-leaders are scoring.

“We’ve got a couple of ex-Sheffield riders, we’ve got a team who relish the big tracks so while it will be a tough match, I’m hoping we can come away with something.”

SHEFFIELD: Jack Holder, Anders Rowe, Josh Pickering, Tai Woffinden R/R, Chris Holder, Danyon Hume, Leon Flint.
BIRMINGHAM: Tobiasz Musielak, Jonas Jeppesen, Michael Jepsen Jensen, Keynan Rew, Matej Zagar, Antti Vuolas, Jason Edwards.

SCB Referee: Graeme Hunter