LEICESTER ace Josh Bates has urged his side to bounce back to winning ways in their basement battle with Somerset at the Oaktree Arena on Friday (7.30).
The Watling JCB Lions have endured a tough run and left Poole empty handed after a 52-40 defeat on Wednesday.
But Bates knows they aren’t far away from putting together a run of form and wants them to prove themselves against the top flight newcomers.
A win could see the Lions leapfrog their opponents to move off the foot of the SGB Premiership table.
With new signing Kyle Newman set to make his debut against his former club, Bates hopes they can end a run of three straight defeats, ironically dating back to a home win over the Rebels earlier this month.
Said Bates: “Somerset is going to be a hard match because they’ve got home advantage, but we’ve got to go down there with the right mindset.
“We’ve had a lot of close meetings that haven’t quite gone in our favour. Hopefully this time we can just score those few extra points and get a win.
“It’s great to have Kyle (Newman) come into the team, he’s a good rider who should do well for us so if he can have a good first meeting and everyone scores some points we can get a result.”
Somerset have drafted in Kyle Howarth and Adam Ellis to guest for Michael Palm Toft and Lewis Kerr, who are both in action for Scunthorpe.
Meanwhile, Todd Kurtz steps in for Erik Riss at reserve for the Lions as the German star is riding for Edinburgh.
SOMERSET: Richard Lawson, Cameron Heeps, Charles Wright, Kyle Howarth, Josh Grajczonek, Jake Allen, Adam Ellis.
LEICESTER: Kim Nilsson, Lasse Bjerre, Jason Garrity, Josh Bates, Danny King, Kyle Newman, Todd Kurtz.
