PREVIEW: OXFORD v IPSWICH (ROWE Motor Oil Prem)

OXFORD and Ipswich kick off their ROWE Motor Oil Premiership programme tonight (Thursday) with the Spires missing one of their winter signings.

Danish star Peter Kildemand is ruled out by concussion protocols after a crash last week, and he has returned home for treatment on a trapped nerve with the hope being that he will be back for the return next Thursday.

The hosts operate rider replacement whilst the Witches are at full strength after a sensational start to the season with their KO Cup wins over Belle Vue.

Oxford boss Peter Schroeck said: “The options regarding guests were very limited, especially since we don’t get the five per cent home increase due to Peter still being on an assessed average.

“When I looked at it, Charles (Wright) can take a rider replacement ride, so can Erik (Riss), and of course Francis (Gusts) can take up to seven rides across the night in total. Rider replacement is not always the best option, but on this occasion, we believe it is.

“Witches do look like the favourites this season – but we know how things can change so suddenly in speedway. We never go into a meeting thinking we’ve got no chance. Every meeting can be won, just as every meeting can be lost.”

Ipswich manager Ritchie Hawkins said: “We had a great start to the season last week in the Cup and now we head into the league campaign where the pressure is off a bit, because we have got plenty of fixtures to make sure we get into the play-offs at the end of the season.

“We are high on confidence from last week and want to keep that ball rolling at Oxford, and we can’t wait to get going and get back together on track.

“Oxford is a place we went well at last season and obviously with the vast majority of the same team as we had in those fixtures, it is just another reason for us to go into the fixture with great confidence. We are very much focused on getting an away win on the board early.”

OXFORD: Rohan Tungate, Erik Riss, Charles Wright, Peter Kildemand R/R, Maciej Janowski, Francis Gusts, Luke Killeen.

IPSWICH: Jason Doyle, Danny King, Adam Ellis, Tom Brennan, Emil Sayfutdinov, Dan Thompson, Jordan Jenkins.

SCB Referee: Gary Allen

LIVE STREAMING: https://livestream.oxfordspeedway.club/