INJURED King's Lynn skipper Tomas Topinka is out for the rest of the season.Stars' team boss Rob Lyon confirmed Lynn's influential leader will not return for the club's grand slam bid and play-off push after suffering concussion in the recent Czech Golden Helmet meeting.

INJURED King's Lynn skipper Tomas Topinka is out for the rest of the season.

Stars' team boss Rob Lyon confirmed Lynn's influential leader will not return for the club's grand slam bid and play-off push after suffering concussion in the recent Czech Golden Helmet meeting.

Ty Proctor again deputises for tonight's Premier League KO Cup semi final, second leg formality at Scunthorpe (7.30pm) after the Aussie featured in Tuesday's 70-20 Norfolk Arena first leg demolition job.

“It's a blow to lose Tomas, for us and for him,” said Lyon. “He took quite a battering but the good thing is he hasn't actually broken anything. He was just badly concussed, had double vision and a black eye. We were worried about the ankle initially but it's not broken.

“Ty has come in and done a good, solid job for us and we'll try to use him as much as we can over the final run-in. We'll have to play our cards close to our chest because the fact he replaces Tomas as a guest means we have to be wary of the eight day ruling.”

Lyon has allayed any complacency fears against their cross-border rivals with title rivals Edinburgh waiting in the final.

“Barring a disaster we would expect to go through,” said Lyon. “But we want to try and get a win and get a result - much like when we had already won the title we went up to Workington and Newcastle and put on a show. That's what this club is all about. We certainly don't want to take our foot off the pedal and let the momentum slip because then it can be hard to get it back, but we can go and enjoy it and try to keep this thing going.

“The home leg was astonishing. Everybody was so sharp and determined to go out and build a big lead. We just came out and set the tone early and the boys carried it on. It was nice to get the win to set things up and also earn a bit of revenge for losing at their place over the Bank Holiday.”

Lynn followed up their Scunthorpe success with a midweek away win at Birmingham in the first leg of the Premier League play-offs.

“I take my hat off to the boys,” said Lyon. “It's been a long, hard season and they still are so focussed and want to achieve more things and win fresh trophies. I think this week has just been more of the same. When one of the guys has not quite been on it the others chip in. We've had no weak links and that has been key. The reserves really settled the Premier Trophy for us and on Wednesday the top four were awesome. It really does take the pressure off and it's what makes us such a hard side to beat.”

Lyon is also backing new World U21 champion Darcy Ward to maintain his stunning end-of-season form. The Aussie teenager is now unbeaten in his last ten Lynn races.

“Phenomenal,” said Lyon. “I make it five meetings in six days and he just seems to have come back from the U21s with so much confidence. I hope he can keep his form and keep it going. We knew he would be good and we showed faith to bring in him at the start of the year, but he's exceeded our expectations and if you asked him I'm sure he'd say he had exceeded his own. To win the amount of races he has won and now to do it on the world stage - it really is unbelievable.”

Scorpions: 1 David Howe, 2 R/R, 3 Simon Lambert, 4 Magnus Karlsson, 5 Carl Wilkinson, 6 Jerran Hart, 7 Ritchie Hawkins.

Stars: 1 Darcy Ward, 2 R/R, 3 Emiliano Sanchez, 4 Chris Schramm, 5 Ty Proctor, 6 Linus Eklof, 7 Jan Graversen.