IPSWICH boss Ritchie Hawkins has dubbed it the “biggest meeting of the season” for his club at Leicester. 

The Witches go to the east midlands on the back of a surprisingly heavy 55-35 defeat at Belle Vue on Monday night. 

Hawkins now believes that it is vital that his side bounces back with a result against the Lions, live on BSN tonight. 

He said: “For me, it’s the biggest meeting of the season so far. On the back of two disappointing results, it’s important we get points there.

“Leicester are a team who are going to fight to be in the play-offs, that’s obvious, and we need a win to keep in the mix.

“We’ve already been to Leicester this season and won, and it will be nice not to have rider replacement this time. Leicester are in better form than they were back then. But we know we’ve won there, so we go there confident.”

Leicester have gone up into the top four of the Premiership table with the Witches outside the play-off places. 

But Ipswich have already won at the Lions’ home track with Emil Sayfutdinov breaking the track record earlier this season. 

Lions boss Stewart Dickson said: “I’m not saying it’s a must-win, but it’s a very important one for us. They beat us at the start of the season so we take nothing for granted, but I do think as a team we are more dialled into the track now.

“We can expect a tough meeting, but I’m confident with the way we’re riding that we can get the two league points, and then if there’s a chance to grab that all-important aggregate point we’ll go for that as well.”

LINE UPS:

LEICESTER: Max Fricke, Justin Sedgmen, Richard Lawson, Chris Harris, Nick Morris, Jake Allen, Drew Kemp (G).

IPSWICH: Jason Doyle, Ben Barker, Danny King, Keynan Rew, Emil Sayfutdinov, Danyon Hume, Joe Thompson.

 

Words by Holeshot Media. 

Images by Taylor Lanning.