SIMON STEAD says it will require a “collective effort” from Sheffield Tigers to overcome the odds and win the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership Grand Final at Belle Vue on Friday night.

The Tigers head to the National Speedway Stadium for the second leg decider trailing 47-43 from the first encounter with their Roses rivals at Owlerton on Monday night.

Some have already written off the Tigers’ chances of getting the better of the Aces, but team manager Stead said past experiences had proved his team were capable of coming out on top in Manchester.

And he believes the pressure is all on Friday night’s hosts, who comfortably finished top of the regular season standings.

“There’s still another 15 heats to go,” he said Stead.

“The pressure is certainly on them now – we’ve got nothing to lose and wouldn’t it be great if we could pull something out of the bag and pull off something really special.

“We’ve shown in the past we can go well at Belle Vue, but we’ll need to be at our very best collectively on this occasion.”

Sheffield name the same 1-7 which sees former Belle Vue man Max Fricke guest at No1, while the hosts bring in Nicolai Klindt in place of the injured Peter Kildemand.

BIG NIGHT: Sheffield Tigers' team manager Simon Stead. Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe

placeholder image — BIG NIGHT: Sheffield Tigers' team manager Simon Stead. Picture: Jonathan Gawthorpe

Belle Vue captain Brady Kurtz acknowledges that his team’s four-point lead could soon disappear when the teams meet for the second time in five days.

“The main thing is not to get carried away,” said Kurtz. “We’re only four points up, and that can be gone in Heat 1. We need to turn up and mean business like we always do at home and try and get this done.

“It’s been a long season and we’re at the pointy end now, and we all really wanted to get past Monday so we can look forward to the home leg which will be a bit nicer for us.”