PREVIEW: IPSWICH v SHEFFIELD (Prem)

PREMIERSHIP leaders Sheffield head to Ipswich tonight (Thursday) as they look to extend their 100 per cent start to the season.

The Tigers have already beaten Belle Vue at home and away in the league, whilst the Witches slipped up against the Aces at Foxhall last week but responded with a KO Cup win at Leicester.

Ipswich again operate rider replacement for Erik Riss who is not yet fit to return following a viral infection, whilst in-form Scott Nicholls comes in for the visitors as a guest for the injured Tobiasz Musielak.

Witches boss Ritchie Hawkins said: “It is certainly going to be another tough night for us at Foxhall and we will certainly need to perform better than we did last week.

“The morale is straight back up after our performance at Leicester and we have stepped it up a gear now.

“We need to make sure we are at that level again on Thursday if we want to win the meeting.”

Tigers co-promoter Damien Bates said: “Myself and Steady (Simon Stead) looked at our options, there were a few names we could look at but no matter where or who he rides for, Scott always seems to deliver.

“So it was a bit of a no-brainer to get him to help us out in this one, especially at a track he loves and often goes so well on.

“Ipswich lost to Belle Vue at home last week and I’d think that was probably a bit of a shock to them, I don’t think a lot of people saw that result coming. Leicester ran them close there as well the week before, so I do think Ipswich are beatable.”

IPSWICH: Jason Doyle, Keynan Rew, Danny King, Erik Riss R/R, Emil Sayfutdinov, Danyon Hume, Joe Thompson.
SHEFFIELD: Jack Holder, Kyle Howarth, Adam Ellis, David Bellego, Scott Nicholls, Lewis Kerr, Dan Gilkes.