SHEFFIELD are aiming to make it eight home league wins from eight when Oxford visit Owlerton in tonight’s (Monday) ROWE Motor Oil Premiership televised fixture.
The Tigers have enjoyed an impressive run in South Yorkshire with a mixture of big victories and others where they have collectively dug deep to get them over the line.
They are currently four points behind leaders Ipswich, who are also in action away at King’s Lynn on Monday, but the Tigers do have two meetings in hand on the Witches.
And the home side are boosted by the news that Rising Star Leon Flint is fit to return at reserve, whilst the Spires operate rider replacement for the unwell Erik Riss.
Sheffield skipper Josh Pickering said: “They’ll have been really frustrated with how their season has gone.
“But you’ve only got to look back to last Monday and how they fought back against Ipswich and took them to a last heat decider – yes it was on home shale, but they’re still a team that are very capable on their day and they’re a team with World class riders.
“They have been a bit up and down of late overall but if we keep plugging away like we have been doing recently then I believe we’ll get the win we’re going out there to get.”
Oxford boss Peter Schroeck said: “We’re not travelling up to Sheffield simply to make up the numbers. You always go into a meeting wanting to make a good impression.
“Sheffield are strong around their home track, but they’ve also had a couple of blips around there this season.
“Our skipper Maciej Janowski was disappointed with his own performance at Leicester on Thursday. He’ll want to bounce back from that. If he can take a positive result from Heat 1, along with Rohan (Tungate), it can give us a boost for the rest of the night.”
SHEFFIELD: Jack Holder, Anders Rowe, Josh Pickering, Lewi Kerr, Chris Holder, Justin Sedgmen, Leon Flint.
OXFORD: Maciej Janowski, Rohan Tungate, Charles Wright, Craig Cook, Erik Riss R/R, Peter Kildemand, Luke Killeen.
SCB Referee: Seth Perkin