PREVIEW: LEICESTER v KING’S LYNN (ROWE MOTOR OIL PREM)

LEICESTER host King’s Lynn at the Hydroscand Arena, Beaumont Park tonight (Thursday) with both sides looking set to challenge for the play-offs.

The Lions currently hold fourth place in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership table but the Stars would move ahead of them with an away win, having pulled off a narrow 46-44 victory when they met in Norfolk last month.

Leicester have Joe Thompson standing in for the injured Dan Gilkes in the Rising Star berth, but they are boosted by the news that Kyle Howarth is fit to ride. King’s Lynn again operate rider replacement for Ben Cook with Nicolai Klindt likely to be a key figure at reserve.

Lions boss Stewart Dickson said: “It’s a big one on Thursday, and certainly out of the three meetings coming up in the next week I know which one I want to win the most, and it’s Thursday!

“I’m not saying the other results in the two meetings next week don’t count as much, but I’ve always said I feel we are going to be in a dogfight with King’s Lynn this season, and we want that top four place.

“I’m sure they will come here with the same thoughts, but we’ll concentrate on what we want to do. It’s good to have Kyle fit, whilst we welcome Joe in and he will know the job he has on the night.

King’s Lynn manager Rob Lyon said: “Leicester are pretty good around their own track so we know it’s going to be tough, but I do feel we have a chance there.

“We’ve looked at all the options for Ben, we’ve gone round in a circle and we’ve come back to r/r again.

“But it is always harder with six riders rather than seven because you run out of options sometimes, as we did at Ipswich. We’ll see what we can pull out of the bag at Leicester.”

LEICESTER: Max Fricke, Luke Becker, Ryan Douglas, Kyle Howarth, Sam Masters, Drew Kemp, Joe Thompson.
KING’S LYNN: Chris Harris, Ben Cook R/R, Jan Kvech, Richard Lawson, Niels-Kristian Iversen, Nicolai Klindt, Ashton Boughen.

SCB Referee: Phil Griffin

*LIVE STREAMING: https://watch.britishspeedway.co.uk