LEICESTER star Ryan Douglas is adamant there will still be a big battle for the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership title when the second leg of the Grand Final takes place on Monday (September 30).
The Watling JCB Lions face an 18-point deficit against Belle Vue after going down 54-36 at the National Speedway Stadium this week, before Thursday’s scheduled second leg was postponed.
Douglas made his comeback from injury in the first leg in Manchester earlier this week and top-scored with 7+1 on a night where the Lions were short on race wins.
And it means they now need to do exactly what Sheffield did last season to clinch the title, as 18 points was the deficit the Tigers turned around to defeat Ipswich in the second leg at Owlerton.
Lions’ results at home to Belle Vue this season have been exactly in that ballpark with a 53-37 win over the Aces in April followed up by a 55-35 victory in July.
Douglas said: “We’re still hungry and we still hope we can do something in the second leg, and we’ll see what happens.
“It’s definitely still do-able, everyone steps up in the play-offs but we’re going to have to be firing 100 per cent.”
Douglas says the arm injury which caused him to miss the semi-final against Ipswich was no hindrance when he made his comeback.
But he admits the Aces riders made the best of conditions, with their lead being extended from eight to 18 points in the closing three races when the rain was at its worst.
Douglas said: “It was okay, the time off gave it good time to heal so it definitely wasn’t a problem.
“It was just a bit tricky at the end when the Belle Vue boys seemed to find the set-ups better than us.
“I changed bikes after a couple of heats and got a race win and felt like I had good speed, and then obviously the rain came and it went backwards from there.
“I tried a few different things but fair play to their boys, they seemed to get going in those conditions.
“It’s a tough place to come. Sometimes you can feel a million dollars and other times it makes you look stupid.”
Both sides will be unchanged for the second leg at the Pidcock Motorcycles Arena, Beaumont Park with Lewis Kerr once again stepping in for the injured Craig Cook for the Lions, whilst the Aces again track Niels-Kristian Iversen as a guest for Ben Cook.
