PREVIEW: IPSWICH v LEICESTER (ROWE MOTOR OIL PREM)

ROWE Motor Oil Premiership leaders Ipswich look to maintain their unbeaten home record when they face Leicester at Foxhall tonight (Thursday).

The Witches dropped points in a narrow defeat at Sheffield last Thursday but bounced back with a win at Birmingham on Monday despite the absence of injured duo Jason Doyle and Dan Thompson.

They again operate rider replacement for Doyle against the fourth-placed Lions, with Danyon Hume stepping in as a guest for Thompson once more, and they also revert to their more familiar riding order.

Ipswich manager Ritchie Hawkins said: “It’s great to be back at home, and it will be a really tough test against a solid team – and with us missing Jason and Dan, they (Leicester) will fancy their chances.

“We covered their absences really well on Monday and are we are going to need another massive team effort to keep our home run going. We have done very well at home and the boys are full of confidence.

“It is very difficult to bring anyone in for Jason who we feel can do a good job, and with the form and ability the other boys have got everywhere at the moment, but even more so at home we feel they are strong enough to cover Jason on Thursday.

Leicester boss Stewart Dickson said: “I said to the boys towards the end of match at Belle Vue that they need to keep their heads up and not get too uptight about it, because it’s just one meeting and we have another one coming right up on Thursday.

“It was always going to be tough at Belle Vue, we have to be sensible about things and we have other sensible targets to go for – Thursday at Ipswich being one of them!”

IPSWICH: Jason Doyle r/r, Danny King, Adam Ellis, Tom Brennan, Emil Sayfutdinov, Danyon Hume, Jordan Jenkins.
LEICESTER: Max Fricke, Luke Becker, Ryan Douglas, Kyle Howarth, Sam Masters, Drew Kemp, Joe Thompson.

SCB Referee: Christina Turnbull