AFTER another pointless showing on the road, this time at Wolverhampton on Monday night, Ipswich Witches will be looking for all three points at home to Coventry tonight.

Defeat now

no option

for Witches

SPEEDWAY

Ipswich Witches v Coventry Bees

Elite League

Foxhall Stadium, tonight 7.30pm

By Mike Bacon

AFTER another pointless showing on the road, this time at Wolverhampton on Monday night, Ipswich Witches will be looking for all three points at home to Coventry tonight.

The Suffolk side have yet still to get into top gear this season and with the Elite League table taking shape, it is beginning to show the Witches getting cut off from the play-off top six, defeat tonight cannot be considered.

“We must get three points, simple as that,” said Witches team boss Pete Simmons.

“There is a gap appearing in the table and we have to make that up.

“It was another disappointing effort at Wolverhampton. I did say they had some weak links and sure enough they did, but we weren't strong enough to make the most of them.”

Tonight's visitors Coventry beat the Witches in a last-heat decider in the opening Elite League fixture of the season at Foxhall and, in general, have had some decent results at Ipswich in past seasons.

However they have injury problems, with both Olly Allen and Ben Barker suffering from broken legs.

“I think Barker and Allen were two of their better scorers in that early season meeting,” Simmons added.

“Especially Allen who is a good starter.

“Last week against Peterborough we came from 12 points behind, but we can't afford that sort of start again. We must be more positive from the start.”

The Witches welcome back Tobi Kroner, who chipped a tooth and suffered whiplash injuries in a car crash in Poland at the weekend, and Jarek Hampel who had food poisoning and missed the Wolves trip.

It hasn't been the greatest start to the season so far for the Witches and although nobody in the Foxhall management team is commenting, most of the Witches riders can be assured they are riding for their places, to move the season forward.

With the prospect of Grand Prix riders like Hans Andersen and Scott Nicholls returning soon to the British scene, promoters have never had so much choice, if the figures stack up, to make changes.

Tonight's teams

Ipswich: J Hampel, L Lanham, T Kroner, D King, P Swiderski, D Stachyra, C Wilkinson.

Coventry: C Harris, R Wells, R/R, E Kennett, R Schlein, K Jakobson, F Sitera

Mike.bacon@archant.co.uk

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Elite League

TABLES up to and including May 11:

M 3W 2W D L 4W 3W D 1L L Pts

Wolves 9 5 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 2 20

Swindon 8 5 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 19

Peterborough 10 4 0 0 1 0 1 0 2 2 17

Lakeside 9 3 1 0 0 1 0 0 2 2 17

Eastbourne 8 5 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 2 17

Coventry 10 2 2 0 1 1 1 0 0 3 17

Ipswich 9 2 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 4 10

Belle Vue 9 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 5 6

Poole 12 0 2 1 2 0 0 0 1 6 6