The Harry Jordan Leicester Lions welcome back their high scoring reserve Alex Edberg for the back-to-back Premier League fixtures against the Rye House Rockets this weekend. Edberg has been out of the side since he was injured whilst riding for his Swedish club Griparna in early July and missed the home wins against Newcastle, Sheffield and Scunthorpe.
The Lions Co-promoter Alan Jones said: “Without being disrespectful to anyone we have missed the contribution that Alex Edberg makes to the lower end of the team. I believe that with Alex in the side we would certainly have collected three match points from the Newcastle fixture and most likely last Saturday against Scunthorpe. When your reserves are not firing it places a greater burden on the number five in the team, as in our case Magnus Karlsson, who has virtually been on his own in three of his four rides. That said the team have coped admirably throughout his absence.”
Leicester will be without Lasse Bjerre for the fixture in Hertfordshire on Saturday as he is competing in the UK Round of the World Under-21 Championship competition at Berwick but he will be back for the return fixture twenty-four hours later at Leicester. The Lions have booked the Sheffield rider Ricky Wells to guest for Bjerre and the New Zealander, who rides on an American licence, scored double figures for his club in a recent meeting at Rye House.
“Ricky is an acknowledged small track expert and we think that his experience will be an added advantage to us so hopefully we have chosen the right person for the task. Our target has to be a minimum of four points from this weekend’s two fixtures against Rye House and that would give us such a boost going forward. Can we do it - well you have to believe we can! Rye House are coming into better form of late after a slow start and I estimate that on current form they are in a false league position at the moment so we can expect two intense meetings against them” added Jones.
Currently the visitors are picking up form after a quiet League Cup campaign that saw them finish out of the reckoning and a slow start in the Premier League where Rye House conceded the points at home to Plymouth and Newcastle. Since then a win at Sheffield and last weekend at Glasgow has seen them put some daylight between themselves and the bottom two clubs and with matches in hand over the teams immediately above them the Rockets have every opportunity to climb the table. It is in the Knock-out Cup where the Rockets have excelled with a semi-final tie with Redcar after wins in the earlier rounds against Glasgow and Sheffield.
