Ipswich Witches travel to Lakeside on Friday night (8), with team boss Ritchie Hawkins saying they have to move on from their opening night loss to Peterborough Panthers at Foxhall, writes Henry Chard.
The Suffolk side lost 44-46 to the Panthers two weeks ago in their Championship Shield clash.
It was not what the doctor ordered for an Ipswich team who are highly-fancied this season.
“Obviously the defeat at home to Peterborough was disappointing but we have experienced heads in the team and it was only the first meeting of the season,” Hawkins said.
“We know what the problems were and we move on from that, we are not worried at all.
“We go to Lakeside knowing the situation in the group and first of all we need to put in a much better performance and progress on a lot from last week, that is the main goal.
“Group wise, if we could take a point on Friday that would be a massive help but we know the situation will be that we need to win our home match against Lakeside and at Peterborough if we want to qualify whether we win on Friday or not.”
The Witches will not find it easy on a tricky Lakeside track that has tight turns and a big home advantage.
The Hammers beat the Panthers by 10 points last week and have had more meetings than the Witches.
“Lakeside is a unique track and a tough place to go when you have not rode there before,” Hawkins added.
“It is good for us to have this meeting on Friday as we have drawn them in the KO Cup – and of course we still have a league clash there.
“This is good to get some practice here early on in the season as a lot of our boys have never seen it before.”
Ipswich are at full strength for the clash, as are the Hammers, who include Kyle Newman, who rode for the Witches last season.
The teams
Lakeside: 1. Nick Morris 8.72 2. Ben Morley 4.28 3. Adam Ellis 7.23 4. Kyle Newman 6.10 5. Richard Lawson 8.65 © 6. Zach Wajtknecht 4.17 7. Alfie Bowtell 2.19. Team Manager: Will Potinger
Ipswich: 1. Danny King 8.87 © 2. Michael Härtel 5.20 3. Rory Schlein 8.58 4. Cameron Heeps 6.93 5. Nico Covatti 7.49 6. Connor Mountain 3.33 7. Danyon Hume 2.00. Team Manager: Ritchie Hawkins
Referee: D. Robinson
Championship Shield table
Team Meetings Points
1 Peterborough 3 6
2 Lakeside 2 4
3 Ipswich 1 0
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