BIRMINGHAM CEO Nigel Tolley says Thursday’s Premiership Knockout Cup tie at Leicester gives his riders the perfect opportunity to tweak their equipment set-ups – and even reckons they could run their Midlands neighbours close on their own track.
The new-look Curtis Sport Brummies endured a bitterly disappointing start to the new campaign when they were comfortably beaten 57-33 at Perry Barr on Monday, meaning they would need a minor miracle to overturn the aggregate deficit against the team who finished runners-up in last year’s top-flight.
But Tolley has a feeling that Leicester’s huge advantage could actually be beneficial to Birmingham on the night (March 27, 7.30pm) when viewing it as a one-off contest.
Regardless of Thursday’s result, however, Tolley has pleaded for patience from the club’s supporters.
“We’ve got to dial ourselves in and we’ve got to tune ourselves up,” he said.
“Those seven Leicester riders, they’ve done a lot of guesting for us at Birmingham and they know our track inside out.
“Our team is entirely brand new and our riders don’t know it at all yet apart from Press and Practice last week.
“I just hope the supporters keep faith with us because things are going to change in the next few weeks and we will start to come up with the results, you can be sure of that.
“On Thursday, I just have a feeling that Leicester may be a little bit complacent and will be expecting to walk away with it.
“And whilst I’m not saying we’ll catch up the amount we lost by at home, I’ve got a feeling it’s going to be a lot closer than a lot of people will be expecting.”
For anyone who can’t make it to the Hydroscand Arena, Beaumont Park, streaming passes are available via leicesterlionstv.com.
LEICESTER: Max Fricke, Luke Becker, Ryan Douglas, Kyle Howarth, Sam Masters, Drew Kemp, Sam Hagon.
BIRMINGHAM: Tobiasz Musielak, Jonas Jeppesen, Michael Jepsen Jensen, Keynan Rew, Matej Zagar, Antti Vuolas, Jason Edwards.
