The Leicester Lions and Belle Vue Aces are set to battle it out for the title in the second leg of the Grand Final tonight (Thursday).
The Aces head to the East Midlands with an 18-point advantage after a strong display in Manchester last week, with the return now set to go ahead after twice falling victim to the weather.
The delay between legs has enabled Ben Cook to return from concussion for Belle Vue, and he takes his place in a full-strength Aces team.
Meanwhile Leicester call up Drew Kemp for the injured Craig Cook, and need to repeat the feat of Sheffield last season who turned around an identical deficit in their second leg against Ipswich.
Lions manager Stewart Dickson said: “We’ve given ourselves a bit of a mountain to climb, but can it be done? Yes, it can, anything is possible.
“Obviously if I’d won 54-36 in my home leg I’d be thinking we’d need to ride really bad for us to lose it in the second leg, so we’ve made it difficult for ourselves, but we’re going to try again on Thursday and see if we can get it back.
“The fans have come out in their numbers all season and we need them to get right behind us. If we can get off to a good start, you never know how things can change, it can happen in speedway.”
Aces boss Mark Lemon said: “I am so proud of the boys this season, and the effort they put in during the first leg especially to overcome challenging conditions to build this advantage was inspiring.
“I truly believe we can finish the job. We’ve got the bit between our teeth and we have the team to do it, we know we can achieve the results needed at Leicester but we will have to perform at our very best.”
Team Line ups
LEICESTER: Max Fricke, Richard Lawson, Sam Masters, Luke Becker, Ryan Douglas, Drew Kemp, Sam Hagon.
BELLE VUE: Brady Kurtz, Norick Blodorn, Jaimon Lidsey, Ben Cook, Dan Bewley, Antti Vuolas, Jake Mulford.
SCB Referee: Willie Dishington
Words and Images by British Speedway
