Having comfortably seen off Scunthorpe at Ashfield on Monday night, we turn attention to another competition entirely as, once again, it’s Knock Out Cup time.
Our weekend – Sunday especially – is dominated by our 2 leg quarter-final tie with Newcastle Diamonds for the right to face Edinburgh in the awaiting semi-final stage.
All being well the semi-finalists will be known come Sunday evening at the conclusion of our scheduled home AND away ties, both to take place this Sunday!
First up of course is the opening tie at Ashfield Stadium, with an earlier start, tapes-up at 1:30pm (gates open from 12:30). Straight after heat 15 at Ashfield, both teams will pack away and head to Brough Park in Newcastle to then race the 2nd leg (start time 7:30pm) and conclude the quarter final.
Tigers target therefore will be to take as big a lead as possible to defend at Newcastle in the evening. Whilst taking a lead at all certainly won’t be easy, Tigers will be buoyed by the ease of their home win over the Scorpions on Monday evening, and a repeat performance with the same level of confidence and bullishness may well allow us to take the upper hand in the first leg on Sunday.
Both sides have declared full seven man line-ups, the Diamond’s therefore welcoming Lewis Kerr back into their side following recent hand injury. Diamond’s will also bring Team GB rider and World Cup finalist Danny King to Ashfield for the first time in several seasons, more than ably backed-up by the evergreen and ever exciting Stuart Robson.
GLASGOW
1 Victor Palovaara 2 Theo Pijper (C) 3 Kevin Wölbert 4 Anders Thomsen 5 Rusty Harrison 6 Kasper Lykke Nielsen Dimitri Berge
NEWCASTLE
1 Danny King 2 Lewis Rose 3 Stuart Robson (C) 4 Lewis Kerr 5 Ludvig Lindgren 6 Simon Nielsen 7 Chris Mills
On paper the Diamonds look to have a strong and dependable side (as Scunthorpe do too) however will have to face Edinburgh at Armadale before being able to focus on our cup tussle on Sunday. Tigers will hope that they can produce the same level of solid scoring throughout the side as was on display on Monday, however in particular will look for improved scoring contributions from young guns Victor Palovaara and Dimitri Berge, and will further hope indeed that Kevin Wolbert’s guest showing at Sheffield last night (11 points) will allow him to continue in the same vein in both cup matches on Sunday.
Both sides have produced some classic encounters in past seasons, and Sunday’s meeting looks to have all the hallmarks of another exciting and entertaining clash.
So set your alarm clock just that little earlier this Sunday, we really need a healthy turn out on Sunday to lend loyal and noisy support to the Tigers – look forward to seeing you all there.