LEICESTER commence their run-in to the play-offs when they visit Oxford in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership on Thursday.
The Watling JCB Lions’ place in the top four was secured with their victory over the Spires at the Pidcock Motorcycles Arena, Beaumont Park last week, and now they look to maintain their momentum ahead of the crucial month of September.
Lions are unbeaten in their last nine fixtures and still have a chance of finishing top of the table, although Sheffield are favourites to take that position after a strong recent run of their own.
A top two finish would be highly desirable as the Lions would want to stage the second leg of their play-off semi-final at home, and they are currently two points behind Belle Vue with two matches in hand.
The Aces complete their schedule at King’s Lynn on Wednesday, whilst the Lions travel to the Adrian Flux Arena next Monday before hosting the Stars a week on Thursday (September 5).
The trip to Cowley takes the Lions back to a venue where they suffered a narrow 46-44 defeat in early June, which was one of several close contests that Oxford have fought out at home this season.
Both teams name full-strength line-ups with Rohan Tungate due back from injury for the Spires, whilst Ryan Douglas will race for the Lions despite a heavy crash in Poland last Sunday which caused him to miss a planned guest appearance for Ipswich on Monday.
Manager Stewart Dickson said: “I’m really pleased for the supporters and our owner Paul Cairns that we’ve got ourselves into the play-offs, and the riders have worked hard and got the results they deserve.
“Obviously we have our aspirations to go further but I don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves at the moment, as we still have three league matches remaining.
“We want to finish as high as we can and then the play-off schedule will take care of itself. Oxford is the next meeting and it’s a chance for us to keep the momentum going, but I’m sure they’ll be keen to finish with a win after missing out on the play-offs.”
OXFORD: Rohan Tungate, Erik Riss, Chris Harris, Charles Wright, Maciej Janowski, Ashton Boughen, Luke Killeen.
LEICESTER: Max Fricke, Richard Lawson, Sam Masters, Luke Becker, Ryan Douglas, Craig Cook, Sam Hagon.
