SHEFFIELD will face Belle Vue in the Grand Final of the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership – despite squandering a 24-point lead in Thursday night's semi-final at Leicester.
The Tigers, who won last week's first leg by 57-33, scraped through in a Super Heat courtesy of guest Max Fricke and Josh Pickering after the tie had finished all square on aggregate at 90-90. Lions suffered a pre-meeting blow when Dan Thompson was ruled out by a training injury but, inspired by reserve Joe Thompson (14+1), tore into Sheffield from the off and were 22-8 ahead after only five races. Four advantages in the next five races levelled the scores overall after Heat 10 and after the sides had traded 4-2s in the next two races, a run of three 3-3s closed out the match at 57-33 on the night and took the tie into a Super Heat. Former Leicester star Fricke won the race for Sheffield ahead of Ryan Douglas, and Pickering secured the all-important third place ahead of Nick Morris. Sheffield team manager Simon Stead (pictured) said: “That is an amazing achievement from where we were halfway through this meeting - we were really on the back foot. “I’m proud of them; they had to dig deep, there were a couple of really big results in there that stemmed the flow a little bit, but it was just hard work. “Our middle order and our reserves were struggling early on and I know they’re disappointed, but what I would say is that they picked up some crucial points at Sheffield that put us in this position. All that matters is that we’re into that Final and we now get to dust ourselves off and go again.” Lions boss Stewart Dickson said: “Proud is the word the immediately comes to the forefront. All six of them put in a sterling performance in the absence of Dan Thompson and I hope none of them feel disappointed. “None of them have let the team down or anything like that - they got us back into that position. But the closer you get, the bigger the disappointment and that was always the worry."
