LEICESTER go in search of away points when their regular Championship campaign reaches the halfway stage at Edinburgh on Friday (7.30pm).
The Watling JCB Lions sit top of the league table thanks to their imperious home form, but are aware that results on the road do need to improve.
They suffered heavy defeats at Scunthorpe and Plymouth but did put in a much more encouraging showing at Redcar last month which resulted in them taking a league point.
The Monarchs have had a quiet start to the season and have only raced two home league matches – the second of which was a heavy defeat to fierce rivals Glasgow.
However, the Armadale side then showed their potential in the reverse fixture 48 hours later by taking the Tigers right down to the wire at Ashfield.
Lions boss Stewart Dickson has elected to retain his top-five riding order after last week’s home win over Oxford, whilst Berwick’s Kyle Bickley comes in at reserve for Anders Rowe who is out with illness.
It’s a first return to Armadale for ex-Edinburgh rider Richie Worrall, who rode for the Monarchs last season before re-joining the Lions over the winter – and his clashes with the home side’s top two Sam Masters and Josh Pickering will carry plenty of interest.
Dickson said: “Edinburgh is a circuit that several of our riders can get round and have done well on in the past, so we will be travelling there with no fears.
“I know they got heavily beaten in their last home match so we have to be aware there could be a reaction to that, but there’s no reason why we can’t come away with something.
“The first target has to be a point at least, which would take us to +2 in the standings, if we could win it would be even better, and it’s all about trying to build that total as well as keeping our home form going.”
Lions fans not making the trip are reminded that Edinburgh operate a full live streaming service, and the meeting will be available for £11.99 from https://www.edinburghmonarchs.co.uk/emtv .
EDINBURGH: Sam Masters, Lasse Fredriksen, Paco Castagna, Kye Thomson, Josh Pickering, Jacob Hook, James Sarjeant.
LEICESTER: Richie Worrall, Dan Thompson, Nick Morris, Connor Mountain, Kyle Howarth, Kyle Bickley, Joe Thompson.
