TIGERS’ NARROW LEAD AFTER FIRST LEG DRAMA

SHEFFIELD were restricted to a narrow three-point advantage from a dramatic first leg of their ROWE Motor Oil Premiership play-off semi-final against Leicester.

The Tigers won 46-43 on the night at Owlerton but that represented a major comeback by the Lions, who trailed by 12 points at the halfway stage, and by 14 with three races to go.

Sheffield secured four 5-1s in the first eight heats, including a talking point in the opener when Leicester captain Max Fricke was disqualified after a clash with the Tigers’ Leon Flint.

But the Lions charged back into contention when Fricke and Sam Masters completed a 5-1 over home stars Jack Holder and Josh Pickering – and then the Tigers saw both Nick Morris and Anders Rowe disqualified from a controversial Heat 14 leaving Drew Kemp and Kyle Howarth to complete an unchallenged 5-0.

Rowe still top-scored for the Tigers with 8+3, with Chris Holder on 8+2, whilst Masters was unbeaten after his first ride for the Lions as he totalled 12+1 with Kemp adding a key 10 at reserve.

Sheffield boss Simon Stead said: “I’m disappointed because we’d done so much right over a long period of the meeting.

“To get to Heat 12 and be in that position was a really good effort – but the tide turned and now we’ve got three points to play with.

“Usually the heats we’re so strong in, we just didn’t get there tonight. It was full commitment all night but Leicester fought back and showed what you can do as the away team – we need to go with the same fight on Monday and see what we can do.”

Lions manager Stewart Dickson said: “The scoreline probably flatters us a little bit – but it gives us a right good chance.

“Considering where we were after four races – credit to Sheffield, they were passing my riders, they were performing really well – we got it together a little bit more in the second half of the meeting.

“We had a wee chat in the brief interval and the message was ‘we’re making starts, but we’re not helping each other, we’re getting passed, we’re getting bullied on the track.’ It wasn’t dirty, it was good hard racing. It’s not over yet though – there’s still a long way to go in this tie!”

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Photo credit: CHARLOTTE FLANIGAN