PREVIEW: SHEFFIELD v IPSWICH (Sports Insure Prem)
SHEFFIELD face Ipswich in a crunch clash of Sports Insure Premiership play-off contenders in tonight’s (Monday) live televised fixture.
The sides head into the Owlerton showdown with the Tigers holding fourth place, two points ahead of the Witches with one match in hand.
Ipswich have a 51-39 advantage for the aggregate point but having suffered two home defeats so far, the Suffolk side need points on the road in order to move up the table.
Both sides expect to be at full strength, with Sheffield’s Rising Star Dan Gilkes suffering no broken bones when he crashed heavily at King’s Lynn on Thursday.
Tigers co-promoter Damien Bates said: “It’s looking like it could be a direct battle for that last play-off place between ourselves and Ipswich, and we know how far another home win over them could go when it comes to settling the top four places.
“A 12-point deficit for Sheffield leaves the aggregate point nicely poised as well if you ask me – but we all saw how good Emil Sayfutdinov was last time, we all know what Jason Doyle can do, and we know they’ve got a couple of other riders who are capable of going well at Owlerton.
“So we’re going to need all of our riders on it from the off, we know the job we need to do and I think it should be a fantastic night of speedway.”
Ipswich boss Ritchie Hawkins said: “We are in a position where we need to win the meeting. We need to go fully focused on winning as we are playing catch-up.
“They are the nearest team to us in the league table at the moment, so it would be a massive win if we could get one there.
“We need to believe in ourselves enough to do it and I think with our full one to seven we are capable of doing it. We are going to need to perform better than we have done all season as a unit, it is a massive meeting.”
SHEFFIELD: Jack Holder, Lewis Kerr, Adam Ellis, Josh Pickering, Tobiasz Musielak, Kyle Howarth, Dan Gilkes.
IPSWICH: Emil Sayfutdinov, Keynan Rew, Danny King, Erik Riss, Jason Doyle, Danyon Hume, Dan Thompson.
