Sheffield Tigers speedway: Connor Mountain set to step in for Jack Holder for Leicester Lions clash

Mountain steps in for the club’s Thursday night visit to Leicester Lions, because three time world chamption Tai Woffinden, who is due to stand in for Tigers number one Jack Holder while he ruled out with a broken wrist, has not yet had time to sort out the logistics of riding in the UK again.The Tru Plant Tigers are currently facing seven Sports Insure Premiership fixtures throughout August as they look to secure a top four finish and book themselves a spot in the end of season play-offs.They occupy the final play-off place, three points ahead of Ipswich - but with four meetings in hand over the Witches.Club bosses signed grand prix star Woffinden earlier this week as an injury replacement for Holder.But with Woffinden having agreed to join the Tigers from next Monday’s (August 7) rescheduled trip to Belle Vue with equipment logistics in mind, it means the Club have been granted ‘no facility’ at number five for Thursday’s meeting with the Lions.Sheffield team manager Simon Stead said: “With Jack getting injured at this time of the year, we had no choice but to declare Tai in our team on Monday night.“Because of his schedule and the logistics and things like that though, we knew he wouldn’t be likely to commit until the beginning of next week.“We wanted to get Tai locked down as Jack’s injury replacement though - and the only downside of doing what we had to do, when we had to do it, is the fact that we got slapped with this ‘no facility’ rule at number five for Thursday only.“It means we have to use a guest with a rider whose match average is 25 per cent lower of the absent rider and we thank Connor Mountain for stepping in at such short notice.“I guess you could say it’s short term pain for further long term gain and as Damien (Bates - co-promoter) said when we were able to announce Tai on Tuesday, we would much rather suffer that for one meeting rather than be struggling to secure guests for all the other meetings we’ve got coming up later this month.“The Sheffield side we’ve got, including Connor because we all know what he can do, are still more than capable of pushing Leicester - but we know they’ll also be fired up following their home loss to Ipswich on Monday.“Apart from that, I think it should be a fantastic night of Speedway between two solid sides and it’s the start of a really busy month for Sheffield so hopefully we can add a few points on the board.”A change in the greensheet averages sees Lewis Kerr return to the reserve berths for the Tigers - where he is set to ride at Leicester on Thursday should he come through a Championship test against Scunthorpe for second tier side Oxford on Wednesday after a spell out with a broken collarbone.LEICESTER: Max Fricke, Justin Sedgmen, Richard Lawson, Chris Harris, Troy Batchelor, Jake Allen, Drew Kemp.SHEFFIELD: Tobiasz Musielak, Kyle Howarth, Adam Ellis, Josh Pickering, Connor Mountain, Lewis Kerr, Dan Gilkes.