PREVIEW: IPSWICH v BELLE VUE (ROWE MOTOR OIL PREM P/O S/F)
IPSWICH and Belle Vue race the second leg of their ROWE Motor Oil Premiership play-off semi-final tonight (Thursday) with the visitors 48-42 up from the opener in Manchester.
The Witches, who led the league standings, were content with their display at the National Speedway Stadium which leaves them with a narrow deficit to pull back as they return to their own circuit.
Previous results in Suffolk this season are in Ipswich’s favour as their home league wins over Belle Vue were with 56-34 and 52-38 scorelines, whilst back in March they demolished the Aces 67-23 in the KO Cup.
Both sides are unchanged with Witches manager Ritchie Hawkins cautiously confident over his side’s chances, whilst Aces boss Mark Lemon insists they can keep their title defence going – if they can produce their best away display of 2025.
Hawkins said: “We go into tonight six points down which leaves the tie very evenly poised. We know we are capable of pulling that back, but we have also seen from past experience this year that if we are not on it, we won’t.
“It should be a cracker of a meeting between two great sides and a proper battle like it was on Monday.
“The boys are up for it, and we know we have an achievable goal in front of us, but we have got to go out there and perform.”
Lemon said: “Everyone is entitled to an opinion on our semi-final chances but luckily opinions aren’t able to race bikes.
“We just need to focus on the job in hand. All I know is that we believe in ourselves, so write us off at your peril.
“We have a lead of six points and we’ve been pretty capable of defending leads over the past few years. We’ve proven that.
“But words are cheap at this stage of the season. It’s about delivering a play-off performance. All the boys know they have to turn up and produce something very solid.”
IPSWICH: Emil Sayfutdinov, Danny King, Jason Doyle, Dan Thompson, Tom Brennan, Adam Ellis, Jason Edwards.
BELLE VUE: Brady Kurtz, Norick Blodorn, Jaimon Lidsey, Zach Cook, Dan Bewley, Tate Zischke, Jake Mulford.
SCB Referee: Mick Bates
