LEICESTER have secured second place in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership table despite suffering a first home defeat of the season at the hands of Ipswich on Monday.
The Witches secured their own play-off place with a 48-42 victory at the Hydroscand Arena, and either they or Sheffield will be semi-final opponents for the Watling JCB Lions.
Leicester are definitely second due to Sheffield’s defeat at Belle Vue, and the most likely scenario at present is that the Yorkshire side will present the next challenge, but the Tigers do need to beat Northampton at home on Wednesday to move back into third place.
Whatever happens, the Lions will have choice of legs for the semi-finals, and details of those dates should follow later in the week.
They were always likely to face a tough encounter against a fired-up Witches side who had plenty to go for, with Leicester having to cover for the absence of Nick Morris after his partner gave birth earlier in the day.
Ryan Douglas led the Lions’ challenge superbly, but his efforts were matched by the spectacular Tobiasz Musielak for the Witches, who were the more solid side on the night.
The visitors took the lead with a 4-2 in Heat 2 with Kevin Juhl Pedersen re-passing Joe Thompson for third place, but the Lions hit back well in the next race when Sam Masters and Dan Thompson both charged inside Danny King into the third bend for a 5-1.
However, the Morris gap proved costly in Heat 4 as Musielak and Jason Edwards responded with a 5-1 over the Lions’ reserves, and the next three races were shared with Douglas having to ride overtime to keep Musielak at bay in Heat 6.
The next race looked to be troublesome for the Lions but Joe Thompson rode superbly to hold off the considerable threat of Tom Brennan for a race win, by just 0.12s.
However, a 5-1 for the Witches in the next race when Edwards took advantage of a battle between Thompson and Scott Nicholls to come through for second place put the visitors into a six-point lead.
Another trio of 3-3s followed including a stunning ride from Douglas to reel in and go past Brennan on the outside of tun two in Heat 10, and the Leicester No.1 also won a tactical substitute outing in the next race.
Masters won Heat 12 with Joe Thompson passing Danny King for a 4-2 which kept Lions in the match, but Musielak superbly cut underneath Douglas on the second lap of Heat 13 with Richard Lawson supplying third place as Ipswich went six-up again.
Lions took it to a last heat decider as Dan Thompson went from third to first in Heat 14 with his hard-working brother Joe in third place, but Musielak had the final say in Heat 15 with another win over Douglas to seal the Witches’ play-off place in style.
Leicester manager Stewart Dickson said: “Ipswich rode well, and sometimes you have to tip your hat to the opposition, but it’s still disappointing to lose a home match, especially the last one before the play-offs.
“We had the team that we had unfortunately. It was difficult to cover for Nick when you look at his score of paid-11 against Belle Vue in the tough No.5 spot, and it’s fair to say that we are not getting the points from the position that Kyle Howarth would have been in at No.6.
“That’s my job to have a look and try to get someone in who can give us a boost in that position. Obviously we will get Nick back, and we’ll know more later in the week about who we face and when.
“It was small consolation that we still had a good, entertaining meeting and the track rode very well given that there were puddles all over it on Monday morning.
“We’re all a bit down because we don’t like to lose here, but come the play-offs we’ll be ready to go out fighting again.
“We’ve finished in second place and when you look at the league table I think that’s justified. Belle Vue have been the best team and I think we’ve certainly been the second best, but we are not quite in the form that we were maybe four to six weeks ago. But it’s my job to try to get the strongest team available for the play-offs, and I will do just that.”
LEICESTER 42: Ryan Douglas 16, Dan Thompson 9+1, Sam Masters 8+2, Joe Thompson 6, Justin Sedgmen 3, Drew Kemp 0, Nick Morris R/R.
IPSWICH 48: Tobiasz Musielak 14, Richard Lawson 9, Jason Edwards 7+2, Tom Brennan 7, Scott Nicholls 5+2, Kevin Juhl Pedersen 4+1, Danny King 2+2.
Ipswich win the aggregate point
