PETERBOROUGH are set to face a re-enforced Lakeside team in the second leg of the Championship Shield semi-final at the East of England Arena on Sunday (5pm).
The Hammers lead by ten points going into the meeting and are without three of their regular riders – the injured Zach Wajtknecht, as well as Ben Morley and Alfie Bowtell, who are racing in the National League Riders’ Championship at nearby Leicester, which starts at 1pm.
Morley, who failed to score in last week’s KO Cup match, is replaced by Edinburgh’s Josh Pickering, who picked up 6+2 at Alwalton earlier in the season, whilst Kasper Andersen and Jason Edwards form a new-look reserve pairing.
For Panthers, Thomas Jorgensen takes over as guest at No.1 following the injury to Ben Barker, whilst Carl Wilkinson is in for Tom Bacon at reserve.
Promoter Ged Rathbone said: “Lakeside have used the rulebook very cleverly, after requesting for the NLRC meeting to be brought forward to start earlier (than the initially scheduled 2.30pm).
“We had an e-mail from Jon Cook stating that they wouldn’t accept this meeting without Ben Morley and Alfie Bowtell, but clearly because they didn’t have the best of meetings last Sunday their mindset has changed, and they’ve used the rulebook, which is allowed.
“That certainly wasn’t in their mindset previous to that, but now they have the likes of Josh Pickering coming in, and Kasper Andersen is a clever move too. But if we want to progress in the competition we have to beat teams like this.
“It’s still very much achievable for us, and it’s down to us to perform. We have Thomas coming in as No.1, and if he does what he did when he guested for us against Berwick we’ll be happy, and it’s all in our hands.
“We’re still on for a quadruple, and they are obviously going to be all-out to defend their lead. I expect plenty of fun and games – there was certainly some of that from them on Saturday, and I’m sure we’ll have some for them!”
PETERBOROUGH: Thomas Jorgensen, Bradley Wilson-Dean R/R, Emil Grondal, Ulrich Ostergaard, Michael Palm Toft, Carl Wilkinson, Simon Lambert. LAKESIDE: Richard Lawson, Josh Pickering, Adam Ellis, Kyle Newman, Nick Morris, Kasper Andersen, Jason Edwards.