PREVIEW: SHEFFIELD v LEICESTER (PREM KOC)
SHEFFIELD and Leicester clash in the Premiership KO Cup at Owlerton tonight (Thursday) as the race for Northern section qualification intensifies.
The Tigers collected three points from their matches with Belle Vue, and they know a win and the aggregate point against the Lions would be enough for them to reach the Final.
For the defending holders, who defeated Sheffield on the way to the silverware last season, the equation is somewhat more complex as they require the aggregate point and a race points swing across the meetings tonight and back in the East Midlands next Thursday after a heavy Easter Monday defeat at Belle Vue.
Both sides name unchanged line-ups with Leicester’s Nick Morris making his return to Owlerton after racing for Sheffield in the closing stages of last season.
Tigers skipper Josh Pickering said: “Leicester were our bogey team last year but it’s a track I enjoy going to, it’s a track we know we can go well at. But let’s try and make life a bit easier for ourselves by picking up a nice win at home.
“We all chipped in against Belle Vue and we’re going to need more of that, but we’re looking forward to it.
“The crowd was absolutely packed out against Belle Vue; to see those sorts of numbers was unbelievable at Sheffield, and hopefully that can continue on Thursday and going into the rest of the season.”
Lions boss Stewart Dickson said: “The performance at Belle Vue has given us a bit of a mountain to climb, but I didn’t want to over-react or go mad about it at the time.
“We won the home match, which was important being the first one of the season, but the bottom line is we are the holders of this particular trophy, and we’ve now got one hand having fallen off it with what I consider to be the toughest team in the group, Sheffield, still to race.
“We will need to go there and put on a full team performance and look to score as many points as possible to give ourselves a chance at home next week.”
SHEFFIELD: Jack Holder, Anders Rowe, Chris Holder, Leon Flint, Josh Pickering, Jye Etheridge, Luke Killeen.
LEICESTER: Ryan Douglas, Dan Thompson, Nick Morris, Kyle Howarth, Sam Masters, Drew Kemp, Joe Thompson.
SCB Referee: Wayne Jarvis
