LEICESTER now have two meetings this weekend to keep their season alive after going out of the cup on Wednesday.
They went to Poole and suffered a 55-35 defeat on the night which meant a 96-84 aggregate exit.
Now they head to Scunthorpe on Friday for the first leg of their play-off quarter-final before a huge night at the Paul Chapman and Sons Arena on Saturday with the deciding leg.
In truth it was Poole’s powerhouse top end which proved to be the difference in Dorset.
With just four heats remaining the aggregate scores were level after a topsy-turvy contest but Steve Worrall, Rory Schlein and Danny King kicked in for Pirates and the Watling JCB Lions couldn’t handle them.
Leicester skipper Kyle Howarth top scored for Stewart Dickson’s side with 12+1 but they lacked the necessary strength in-depth to match the home side.
Said Howarth: “It’s disappointing to go out of the cup but we gave it a good go. It looked like we could take it to the last race but they were strong towards the end.
“Now we have to focus on Scunthorpe over two legs in the play-offs. We could yet potentially have six meetings to race this season and we want those extra meetings, but we want success for Leicester.
“We’ll go to Scunthorpe with a positive attitude and hopefully we’ll be in a good position when we bring them back to our track on Saturday.”
POOLE 55: Steve Worrall 15, Rory Schlein 11+2, Zach Cook 8+3, Danny King 8, Benjamin Basso 6+1, Ben Cook 5+1, Danyon Hume 2+1
LEICESTER 35: Kyle Howarth 12+1, Nick Morris 8, Hans Andersen 6, Zaine Kennedy 4+2, Ryan Douglas 4+1, Joe Thompson 1, Dan Thompson r/r
Poole win 96-84 on aggregate.
