Leicester face three important meetings in as many days which will define how their season will turn out in two competitions. First of all the Harry Jordan Lions travel to Sheffield on Thursday as Group 3 leaders of the League Cup competition and a point at Owlerton will secure their place in the semi-final draw. Sheffield can also qualify if they collect all three match points and both teams are at full strength.
“Let’s not kid ourselves, Sheffield are almost invincible at Owlerton where they have lost just eighteen Premier League matches in sixteen years. From these statistics you can begin to see that everyone has to be on their game on Thursday night. I believe that we are riding well enough to make a real go of it and have only one thought in mind and that is to win. We can afford to draw or as a bare minimum lose by six which will give us the bonus match point. But that is defensive talk when in fact we will be going there on the offensive” commented the Lions Team Manager Glyn Taylor.
Twenty-four hours later Leicester journey further north to Edinburgh where they take on the Monarchs in the first leg of the Knock-out Cup. The Scottish club are renowned cup specialists and are three times winners of the title. Last year Edinburgh came close to making the final again but went out in the last stage to Ipswich.
“Edinburgh are another team with a very good home record and at the very least we need to keep in contention throughout the meeting up in Scotland to give ourselves a chance of outscoring them over the two leg tie. The rules of the competition do not favour the away team as there are no tactical changes a team manager can make to gain double points if their side is losing and as in any sport there is a higher percentage of home wins” explained Taylor.
The Lions make two positional changes to the team that gained a convincing win against Scunthorpe with Jan Graversen and Kevin Doolan switching places for all three fixtures.
Team
Leicester
1 Kauko Nieminen, 2 Jan Graversen, 3 Lasse Bjerre, 4 Kevin Doolan, 5 Magnus Karlsson, 6 Simon Nielsen and 7 Lewis Blackbird
Sheffield
1 Simon Stead, 2 Facundo Albin, 3 Joe Haines, 4 Richard Hall, 5 Ricky Wells, 6 Damien Koppe and 7 Jake Knight
Edinburgh
1 Craig Cook, 2 Derek Sneddon, 3 Theo Pijper, 4 Max Fricke, 5 Claus Vissing, 6 Marcel Helfer and 7 Jozsef Tabaka
