BELLE VUE boss Mark Lemon wants his team to “step it up” for a crucial clash at Oxford.
The ATPI Aces face the Spires in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership on Thursday night.
The Manchester side are comfortably joint second in the league table but Lemon vows that their away form must improve.
He said: “It’s another important meeting as we move towards the business end of the season.
“We are right in the mix at the top of the table, just two points off the top. The main thing is that we always want to keep winning.
“Momentum and confidence is a big part of the sport. So we go to Oxford, like we go everywhere, seeking a victory.
“There’s a fair bit of noise about our away form. I’m not willing to get too carried away about it.
“We’ve had some disappointing defeats at Birmingham and Leicester, but both were without Brady (Kurtz). We also went to Ipswich without Norick (Blodorn). That does have a big impact.
“If we’d won at Birmingham with Brady, which I think we would have, and got the bonus point at Ipswich with Norick, I don’t think our away form would have been questioned as much.
“In saying that, I do want the boys to step it up. We won at Oxford comfortably earlier in the season. That means nothing now. This is a new day and I think they’ve improved a great deal.
“Norick misses the meeting due to a rearranged Polish fixture and the on-form Paco Castagna steps in. They have a few guests so it’s hard to predict what we will face.
“I have faith in my boys. We will go there with a lot of belief to get a strong victory.”
Teams:
Oxford: 1.Maciej Janowski, 2.Kyle Howarth (guest), 3.Charles Wright, 4.Victor Palovaara (guest), 5.Rohan Tungate, 6.Mitch McDiarmid (guest), 7.Luke Killeen.
ATPI Aces: 1.Brady Kurtz, 2.Paco Castagna (guest), 3.Jaimon Lidsey, 4.Zach Cook, 5.Dan Bewley, 6.Tate Zischke, 7.Jake Mulford.