OXFORD boss Peter Schroeck knows that his side must win the battle of the reserves, live on BSN.
The Spires face Sheffield at Cowley tonight (Thursday) with both sides looking to make progress in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership table.
The Spires have won just once at home so far but victory against the Tigers could see them close in on fourth-placed Leicester, depending on the Lions’ result at Ipswich.
Meanwhile the visitors, who won at King’s Lynn on Monday, will go into second ahead of Belle Vue if they score 34 race points to take the aggregate point, and would also move ahead of Ipswich if they win and the Witches slip up at home.
Oxford have Craig Cook missing with ‘flu and Zach Cook comes in as a guest. Peter Kildemand drops to reserve, where he will face former Spires rider Lewis Kerr who scored a remarkable 16+1 on Monday.
Boss Schroeck said: “One of the positives from last week was the form shown by Peter, leading our scoring along with the ever-reliable Charles Wright.
“Peter will move to reserve against Sheffield, and just like Craig Cook, he has the experience to score well from No 6 and give us that extra strength at reserve.
“We do need to make up for last week’s defeat to Belle Vue. We’re doing our best to stay positive and a win would lift the spirits of everyone in the Spires’ camp and also get us back on target to make sure we are winning at home.”
Tigers boss Simon Stead said: “The last couple of meetings, we’ve had to really dig deep as a team.
“Everyone has played their part, even when they haven’t necessarily scored as many points as they’d expect themselves to.
“It’s going to need another all-round, collective performance down at Oxford and we won’t be taking them lightly, that’s for sure. But the lads are feeling good and they’ll be doing everything they can to try and keep this ball rolling.”
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Words by Holeshot Media.
Images by Taylor Lanning.