Ipswich Witches skipper, Danny King, has told his Foxhall team-mates it’s time to ‘step up to the plate’.

The Suffolk side are in Knockout Cup action tonight, 7.30pm, on the Heath, against Rye House Rockets in the first leg of the teams’ two-legged tie – the second leg is in Hertfordshire on Saturday.

King, who celebrated the birth of his second son, Casey, on Saturday, leads a home side that have made a stuttering start to the 2016 season.

He says it’s time to buck their ideas up.

“We need to go out there and show exactly what we are made of,” King said.

“It hasn’t been good enough and yet we have a very capable team. It’s time for riders to step up to the plate, to stand up and be counted.

“We can have no excuses.

“We’ve all been on a bike long enough this season now and we owe it to our fans to put on a performance and get this season up and running.

“We are already out of the League Cup and we are bottom of the Premier League.

“OK, there is a long way to go in the league, but we don’t want to go out of both cups yet.”

Rye House include former Witches Leigh Lanham and Cameron Heeps in their line-up and they will provide tough opposition.

Rockets No.1 Eddie Kennett has made a sensational start to the season, in stark contrast to many of the Witches.

Ipswich team boss Ritchie Hawkins said: “If we get a good result against Rye House, the next round is not for a couple of months so that positive result will kick us on and we can start our charge back up the league table.”