It’s a tough start but team boss Johnson holds no fears

Team boss Carl Johnson insists facing the reigning champions holds no fears for Panthers.

The city team travel to titleholders Sheffield in their opening league fixture of the SGB Championship season tonight (Thursday, 7.30pm).

The trip to take on the Tigers is swiftly followed by a first home league meeting on Sunday as Panthers entertain Redcar at the East of England Arena (5pm).

And Johnson is keen for his men to make a positive start to a short season which features only 20 meetings in total – one home and one away against each team.

“There’s no doubt going to the reigning champions for our first league meeting is a tough start,” said Johnson.

“Sheffield started off with a big home win last week, but I’m not reading too much into that as it was against a poor Newcastle team.

“We’ve started the season well and we’re going there to get a result. I think it should be a very good meeting full of excitement on a proper race track.

“Every single meeting is important in such a short season with only 20 league fixtures in total. We accept we may be run close at home at times, but we also feel we have a line-up capable of picking up points on the road.

“We need to ensure we compete well at Sheffield and then get the job done on Sunday in front of our fans.

“The crowd for the home meeting against Lakeside was excellent and the racing was entertaining so hopefully the supporters will stay behind us.”

Johnson is pleased with the way Panthers have started the campaign, winning two of their three SGB Championship Shield clashes to date.

They saw off Lakeside in their home opener 46-44 and then triumphed by the same scoreline at Ipswich last Thursday.

Johnson then missed the club’s first loss of 2018 – 50-40 at Lakeside the following night - due to work commitments. Dale Allitt, who had a spell working alongside Johnson a couple of years ago, stepped in for the night.

Johnson added: “There have been positives in every meeting so far, but there is still lots of improvement to come both individually and as a team.

“We’ve not clicked completely yet, which is perfectly understandable so early in the season, but I’m confident that we’ll keep moving forward in the coming days.

“Sheffield is a track that will the vast majority of the boys and they’re all looking forward to getting back to the Showground on Sunday.”

TEAMS

PANTHERS: 1 Scott Nicholls, 2 Emil Grondal, 3 Nike Lunna, 4 Michael Palm Toft, 5 Ulrich Ostergaard, 6 Tom Bacon 7 Simon Lambert.

SHEFFIELD: 1 Kyle Howarth, 2 Todd Kurtz, 3 Charles Wright, 4 Rider replacement for Josh Bates, 5 Lasse Bjerre, 6 Jack Smith, 7 James Shanes.

REDCAR: 1 Ben Barker, 2 Jordan Stewart, 3 Jonas B. Andersen, 4 Mikkel B. Andersen, 5 Matej Kus, 6 Tobias Busch, 7 Theo Pijper.

Michael Palm Toft top-scored for Panthers at Ipswich.