LEICESTER Lion Cubs open their away National League campaign as they make the long trip to Plymouth on Friday (7.15pm).
The Roger Webster Lion Cubs have made a solid start to league action with home wins over Belle Vue and Stoke, and now face two matches on the road in the space of four days.
Friday’s visit to the Coliseum is followed up by a Midlands derby against Cradley at Wolverhampton next Monday, with the scheduled home fixture against the Isle of Wight this weekend postponed due to the senior team’s Championship Shield semi-final.
Despite also competing in the National Trophy, Plymouth have been short of home matches so far this season due to the weather and recent track issues at their home base.
But the re-named Gladiators have already shown they could be dark horses by taking an impressive 48-42 away win at the Isle of Wight on Tuesday.
The Lion Cubs have six of their seven riders available, with injury victim Jamie Halder remaining on the sidelines.
No.1 Ellis Perks rode for Plymouth in the second half of last season and holds the track record at the venue.
Perks misses the Cradley match next week due to Premiership commitments with Swindon, but the Cubs have booked the in-form Danny Ayres to guest at No.1 at Monmore.
Co-boss Dave Howard said: “We’ve got a few away matches coming up now, but most of our guys have ridden the tracks before.
“We’ll go into them with confidence and we could see from our last home match that the boys are riding with that confidence and all giving great points towards the team score.
“We’re looking forward to these meetings with great optimism.”
PLYMOUTH: Ben Wilson, Adam Extrance, Scott Campos, Richard Andrews, Nathan Stoneman, Adam Sheppard, Jamie Bursill.
LEICESTER: Ellis Perks, Ryan MacDonald, Luke Ruddick, Jamie Halder r/r, Danyon Hume, Dan Thompson, Joe Thompson.
