IPSWICH Witches' concerns of finishing bottom of the Sky Sports Elite League table are as good as behind them and with that they can travel to Lakeside tonight and look to put on a relaxed and hopefully impressive performance.

Mike Bacon

SPEEDWAY

Lakeside v Ipswich Witches

Sky Sports Elite League

Tonight, Purfleet, 8pm

By Mike Bacon

IPSWICH Witches' concerns of finishing bottom of the Sky Sports Elite League table are as good as behind them and with that they can travel to Lakeside tonight and look to put on a relaxed and hopefully impressive performance.

Belle Vue's inability to take maximum points at home off Peterborough on Monday night, as good as erased the Witches worries of a relegation play-off.

Indeed with Poole entertaining Belle Vue last night, the points either of them take off each other is more likely to condemn one of them to a bottom-placed finish, rather than see the Witches involved.

But with four away meetings still to race, the Witches will be looking for a top-six finish now and, before the rules were changed, that would have been a play-off berth.

That play-off berth won't be happening now of course with only the top four included - a real own goal from the speedway authorities.

Lakeside however will be in the play-offs,

The Hammers' place in the final four was confirmed on Monday night when Peterborough only took one point from their visit to Belle Vue leaving the Panthers unable to finish above the Essex-based club, who will finish third if they beat Ipswich.

They will be racing Wolverhampton over two legs and team owner Stuart Douglas is in confident mood.

“There are signs that this year's team is coming into top form at just the right time and we believe we could be the first team outside of a top-two finish to take the play-off title.

“A win on Friday against Ipswich is a must and to add a second top three finish in two years is what this team deserve.”

Former Witch Piotr Swiderski has finished his spell with the Hammers, who welcome back captain Adam Shields.

The Witches have Redcar's Chris Kerr in the reserve berth, with Carl Wilkinson riding for Scunthorpe at Somerset.

There may only be pride at stake for both sides, but for both sides too, victory would be very sweet.

Teams

Lakeside: 1 L Richardson, 2 J Kylmakorpi, 3 K Nieminem, 4 J Davidsson, 5 A Shields, 6 R Harrison, 7 S Robson.

Ipswich: 1 R Miskowiak, 2 R/R, 3 T Batchelor, 4 D King, 5 S Nicholls, 6 D Stachyra, 7 C Kerr.