PREVIEW: IPSWICH v KING’S LYNN (Prem)

LOCAL rivals Ipswich and King’s Lynn meet for the first time this season at Foxhall today (Monday) with a 2.30pm start at Foxhall.

The Witches bounced back strongly from a home defeat to Belle Vue with a win over Sheffield last time out, whilst the Stars’ last outing saw them exit the KO Cup at the hands of the Tigers.

Lynn bosses condemned their team’s display in that meeting, but they do have a good record at Ipswich in recent years.

The home side continue to operate rider replacement for Erik Riss, who remains sidelined with a virus, whilst Kyle Howarth guests for injured Stars skipper Josh Pickering.

Ipswich boss Ritchie Hawkins said: “I’m excited and looking forward to it. We go into it with confidence, and everyone will be well aware of the importance of winning the meeting for local pride and our play-off push.

“King’s Lynn have had some good results at Foxhall in previous seasons as well and have caused a shock against us, and we need to make sure we don’t let that happen.

“We need to perform, we don’t want to be dropping points to King’s Lynn, that would put an early dent in our play-off aspirations.”

Stars co-promoter Dale Allitt said: “We spoke at length to the riders after the Sheffield meeting last week, and they are fully aware that it wasn’t good enough and we need a reaction.

“Racing against Ipswich is a good opportunity to bounce back. It’s a meeting that means a lot to both clubs and our riders are just as aware of the importance.

“Ipswich know we’ve gone well there in the last few years and we fully intend to go there and perform, put some pressure on them and hopefully come away with a positive result, which would also set us up for a big night at home on Thursday.”

IPSWICH: Jason Doyle, Erik Riss R/R, Danny King, Keynan Rew, Emil Sayfutdinov, Danyon Hume, Joe Thompson.
KING’S LYNN: Nicolai Klindt, Thomas Jorgensen, Frederik Jakobsen, Krzysztof Kasprzak, Michael Palm Toft, Kyle Howarth, Jason Edwards.