GLASGOW hope a win over Newcastle tomorrow can help set them up for the most important week of their season so far.
The Tigers face the Diamonds at the Peugeot Ashfield Stadium, knowing three points will keep them within touching distance of Sheffield and Ipswich above them in the SGB Championship.
Stewart Dickson’s side have had their toughest spell of the campaign of late, losing four away meetings in a row and watching Sheffield build up a sizeable lead.
But captain Aaron Summers believes a run of home fixtures coming up will help them build confidence that they can take on the road.
The Newcastle meeting comes five days before Glasgow travel to Sheffield for a massive crunch match, and the two sides meet again at the Peugeot Ashfield Stadium next Saturday.
The Tigers then have four more home matches in nine days, on top of visits to Peterborough and Edinburgh, as they catch up on a backlog of fixtures.
Aussie ace Summers said: “Our recent run of form isn’t a bad thing, it’s just the way it goes and the way the fixtures have lined up.
“I’m sure that we’ll still be a force in the playoffs – we’ve just had a bit of a rough run in the last few weeks.
“It would set things up nicely for Sheffield next week if we got a good win tomorrow. We can’t think of any team in the league being an easy one to face, they’ll be keen to beat us as much as anyone else – but I think the boys will fire themselves up again and we’ll be OK.
“We haven’t had a run at home for a while, so I think it’ll help us getting a win on the cards and that’ll set us up nicely for Thursday.”
Meanwhile heatleader Richie Worrall – who top scored in Glasgow’s defeat at Newcastle on Sunday – says the Tigers need to be wary of the challenge posed by the Diamonds, who have his twin Steve among their ranks.
He said: “If they start all firing at the same time – and they all like Glasgow – then we’re in a bit of trouble if we’re still in the same form that we have been as a team.
“Obviously it’s frustrating, I don’t like losing, I’m a bad loser – whether it be personally or as a team – I just don’t like losing. We need everyone to have the same mentality.”
Glasgow have called in Edinburgh’s Josh Pickering to guest in place of No 2 Dan Bewley, who is on duty with Great Britain’s U21 side, as is Newcastle top man Robert Lambert – who’s replaced by Redcar’s Ben Barker.
Tapes up is at 7pm.