Ipswich ‘Tru Mix’ Witches team manager Ritchie Hawkins says his team need to 'pick themselves up quickly' after last night's 52-38 defeat to Leicester.

A third straight loss, following set-backs at Belle Vue (55-35) and at home to Wolverhampton (51-39), sees the Witches stay fifth in the Sports Insure Premiership table ahead of Monday night's visit of Sheffield Tigers to Foxhall.

"It was another disappointing result and that is three in a row," said Hawkins.

"We have clearly not been strong enough in those three meetings and tonight we were not making good starts for the first two thirds of the meeting. You can’t let teams get that far ahead of you. We need to pick ourselves up quickly for Monday because if we don’t improve vastly then we will get beaten again.

“We started the season well, but maybe other teams have improved and hit form. We have been missing riders and using R/R a lot and that has caught up with us. At the moment we are a team down in form whereas others are on the up. We have got to pull our socks up quickly and get back on the upwards trend to get the feel-good factor back at the club.

“We are not a million miles away even though the final scores would suggest otherwise. By watching the actual races, we are not a million miles off, but we need to improve in areas, be more clinical and not make mistakes. The effort and determination are certainly there but the execution hasn’t been."

With Emil Sayfutdinov topscoring with 17, Hawkins added: “Emil was superb again and he has taken a real liking to this track, and he provided some real entertainment tonight.

"Erik (Riss) is going to race for Redcar on Friday which is very positive. He has improved since his last treatments, and he is going to ride. We will wait and see how he gets on and we hope he comes through that well. He will have two meetings with Redcar before Ben’s 28 days are up, so we will wait and see how he gets on.”

LEICESTER 52: Max Fricke 11, Justin Sedgmen 7+1, Richard Lawson 4+1, Chris Harris © 9+1, Nick Morris 7+1, Jake Allen 7+2, Drew Kemp (G) (RS) 7+1. Team manager: Stewart Dickson.

IPSWICH 38: Jason Doyle 7+1, Ben Barker 1, Danny King © 6, Keynan Rew 3, Emil Sayfutdinov 17, Danyon Hume 3, Joe Thompson (RS) 1. Team manager: Ritchie Hawkins.